.1^2^-99 


tihvaxy  of  Che  trheolo^icd  ^eminarjp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


Presented  by 
Prof.  Wm.  Brentcn  Greene,  D.D. 

^1885^^'  Alexander,  1804- 

^n^M^''''^  ""^   Presbyterianisi 
m  New  England 


A  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 
IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


ITS  INTRODUCTION,  GROWTH,  DECAY,  REVIVAL 
AND  PRESENT  MISSION. 


Alexander  ""blaikie,  D.D., 

FOR  THIRTY-THREE  YEARS  PASTOR  OF  THE    (u.)  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  BOSTON, 
AUTHOR  OF    "the  PHILOSOPHY  OF  SECTARIANISM,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


**r%  saints  take  pleasure  in  her  stones. 
Her  very  dust  to  them  is  dear,^* 


T^WO   -V-OXiTJ^v^ES    IIsT   OITE- 


BOSTON : 

PUBLISHED  FOR  THE  AUTHOR  BY  ALEXANDER  MOORE, 

No.  3  School  Street. 

1881. 


Prioe$2.00.    Sold  by  subsoription.    SentbymaU. 


Copyright  November  14th,  1881,  by 

ALEXANDER  BLAIKIE, 
8Z2I  North  i6th  St..  Philadelphia. 


FERQUSON    BROS.    &   CO.', 

PRINTERS   ANO    ELECTROTYPCRS, 

PHILADELPHIA. 


Mtiitutlon. 


TO   PRESBYTERIANS    IN   NEW   ENGLAND. 

Respected  Friends  : — Our  "  Form  of  sound  words,"  embracing  doc- 
trine, worship,  government  and  discipline,  is  not  ephemeral.  As  a  more 
exact  embodiment  of  revealed  truth,  than  is  found  elsewhere  among  human 
productions,  it  will  be  perpetuated. 

Both  Prelacy  and  Congregationalism  borrow  our  axle  to  keep  their 
■wheels  in  motion. 

They  could  not  usefully  exist  without  at  least  some  consultative,  if  not 
judicial  representation. 

As  we  see,  in  the  case  of  the  seven  churches  in  Lesser  Asia,  the  influ- 
ence of  revealed  truth  is  not  always  equable  and  enduring.  It  performs 
its  mission  successfully,  in  proportion  to  the  faithfulness  of  its  professors. 

Let  us  therefore  be  "  valiant  for  the  truth  in  the  earthy"  and  be  ''judged 
faithful  to  the  Lord  " — "  followers  of  them  who  through  faith  and  patience 
inherit  the  promises." 

This  work  is  written,  that,  you  may  know  something  of  the  doctrine, 
faithfulness,  endurance  and  success  or  otherwise,  of  Presbyterians  informer 
generations  here — under  the  overshadowing  influence  of  a  difiierent  church 
polity — sustained  by  the  civil  power. 

It  is  "  written  for  the  generation  to  come :  and  the  people  which  shall  be 
created  shall  praise  the  Lord." 

(3) 


PREFACE 


Thrown  by  Divine  Providence  among  Presbyterians,  who 
were  "  strangers  in  a  strange  land,"  and  subsequently  called  to 
reclaim  (if  practicable)  the  church  estate  entailed  for  their 
denominational  use  in  the  New  England  metropolis,  the  equity 
of  title  to  which  was  once  enjoyed  by  our  pastor,  church  and 
congregation,  by  our  Presbytery  and  Synod  ''  of  the  bounds  ;'* 
but,  perverted  first,  by  schism,  and  then  by  furtive  and  hasty 
local  legislation,  impairing  the  obligations  of  a  contract,  in  vio- 
lation of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  it  became  ne- 
cessary for  the  writer  to  examine  existing  records  of  church 
courts. 

This  duty  and  privilege  opened  to  him  a  new  field  of  study 
and  observatioiu  of  which,  in  common  with  others,  he  had 
known  but  a  little. 

As  the  records  were  extensively  lost,  a  knowledge  of  the  prin- 
ciples, privations,  sectarian  oppression,  and  toils,  of  his  denom- 
inational predecessors  were  floating  into  oblivion,  and  while  the 
name  survived,  those  who  then  wore  it  were  extensively  suc- 
cumbing before  a  different  species  of  ecclesiastical  polity. 

From  these  and  similar  facts,  on  consideration,  he  thought, 
that  a  contribution,  not  yet  written,  might  be  made  to  the  his- 
tory of  a  portion  of  the  church  militant,  that  in  an  historic  form, 
it  might  "  strengthen  the  things  that  remain  and  are  ready  to 
die,"  while  the  workings  of  Divine  Providence  towards  and 
with  our  people,  may  afford  a  melancholy  interest  to  those 
whose  hearts  still  "  tremble  for  the  ark  of  God." 

In  attempting  to  do  this,  his  difficulty  was  much  increased,  by 
the  changes,  which  have  been  (and  are  being)  rung,  on  and  un- 
der the  specific  name,  Presbyterian,  in  two  hundred  years.  In 
the  Council  at  Edinburgh  in  a.d.  1877,  no  less  than  forty-nine 
divisions  were  found  to  take  shelter  under  the  genera]  name. 
Hence  some  type  of  it  must  be  selected,  as  an  approximation  to 
a  standard,  and  finding,  that,  that  one  which  British  Pres- 
byterians have  ever  brought  to  America,  is  more  extensively 
authorized  by  divine  revelation  than  any. other,  the  writer  as- 
sumes it,  (excepting,  the  chapters,  circa  sacra),  as  the  criterion 

(5) 


6  PREFACE. 

of  comparison  and  the  most  scriptural  existing  human  "  form 
of  sound  words." 

This  (the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faitli  and  Catechisms, 
drawn  up  by  godly  men  under  solemn  vow),  ])iesent:^  that  "  form 
of  doctrine  which  is  according  to  godliness"  (with  the  above 
exceptions),  with  almost  the  entire  accuracy  of  the  exact  sciences, 
while  it  stands  out  in  contrast  with  the  modern  ideas,  that,  "  the 
manner  in  which  Congregationalism  took  its  rise  in  New  Eng- 
land renders  it  sufficiently  divine,"  and  tliat  these  two  systems 
of  church  polity  are  all  but  the  same.  "Merely  a  question  of 
church  government,  where  no  substantial  principle  of  rehgion 
is  involved"  (Hon.  ^V.  Willis). 

The  manly  utterance  of  the  editor  of  "the  Conqref/ationalist^^ 
of  December,  1880,  is"  worthy  of  all  accei»tation  :  ""such  talk  as 
that  Congregationalism  and  Presbyterianism  are  but  twins,  only 
to  be  separately  identified  by  blue  and  red  ribbons,  is  exceed- 
ingly superficiaf  and  unworthy  the  dignity  of  serious  and  candid 
minds."  In  honor  to  the  truth,  he  distinguishes  things  that 
differ,  he  has  a  full  right  to  his  own  opinions,  is  able  to  express 
them,  and  in  so  far  as  this  work  may  be  in  opposition  to  his 
views,  it  is  trusted  that  he  will  liave  only  honorable  compe- 
tition, while  the  writer  endeavors  to  shew  the  ''  more  excellent 
way." 

The  task  undertaken  is  one  of  vast  difficulty.  If  it  were  sim- 
ply to  write  the  history  of  Presbj^terianism  in  any  other  part  of 
the  Union,  so  far  as  facts  could  be  presented  that  might  be 
easily  done. 

Take  Virginia  for  example.  In  it  also  Presbyterians  were 
ostracized  by  civil  law. 
/  "  In  1642  a  law  was  passed  forbidding  any  other  than  an  Episco- 
'  pal  minister  to  officiate  in  the  colony."  The  restraining inliuences 
of  tlie  civil  power  were  for  generations  felt.  Consequently,  says 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller,  when  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Tennant  and  Find- 
ley  were  sent  for,  in  1745,  to  preach  to  a  company  of  sinners,  who 
had  been  awakened  by  reading  the  Bible  and  practical  religious 
books,  they  must  obtain  license  of  tlie  governor,  before  they 
could,' to  them,  "preach  Christ."  Tiiere  also,  the  governor 
could,  only  with  great  difficultv,  prevail  on  the  court  not  to  re- 
voke the  license  which  he  had  granted  to  the  eminent  Rev. 
Samuel  Davies,  and  send  him  out  of  the  colony,  and  there  also, 
the  venerable  Rev.  John  Rogers,  D.  D.,  who  died  so  recently  as 
1811,  was  forbidden  to  preach,  "under  penalty  of  £500,  and  a 
year's  imprisonment,  without  bail,  or  main  prize."  Prelacy, 
however,  did  not  "take  its  rise  in  Virginia,"  and  while  in  its 
three  divisions  there,  it  has  fifty  percent,  of  the  clnu'ches,  yet, 
all  the  different  forms  of  religion  found  in  that  State,  are  alike, 
under  the  eye  of  the  civil  law,  abreast  of  each  other,  and  Pres- 
byterians are  not  badgered  by  the  dominant  sect,  while  if  any 
new  ones  appear,  they  are  almost  wiiolly,  if  not  altogether 
imported. 


PREFACE.  7 

By  tracing  records  and  from  other  sources  of  information  a 
history  of  Presbyterianism  in  that  State  could  without  much 
difficulty  be  presented,  for  the  population  are  not  religiously 
"given  to  change;"  while  (excepting  among  the  some  25,000,- 
000,  in  England  and  Wales,  there  are  one  hundred  and  thirty-^ 
three  sects),  we  have  among  the  4,100,438  people  in  New  Eng-'^ 
land,  the  most  shifting  quicksands  of  rehgious  opinion  in  doc- 
trine and  worship  to  be  found  in  Christendom. 

Congregationalism,  springing  up  Avithin  the  Northern  Virgi- 
nia plantations  as  a  colonial  religion,  had  from  its  infancy  an 
exclusive  theocracy.  ''He  (the  Rev.  John  Cotton)  found  tho 
whole  country  in  a  peri)lexed  and  divided  state  as  to  their  civil 
constitution,  and  was  requested,  from  the  laws  wherewith  God 
governed  his  ancient  people,  to  form  an  abstract  of  such  as  were 
of  moral  and  lasting  equity,  which  he  did  acceptably  and  judi- 
ciously. But  ina.smucii  as  an  Athenian  Democracy  was  in  the 
mould  of  the  Government  by  the  Royal  Charter,  which  was  then 
acted  upon,  Mr.  Cotton  effectually  recomm^^ided  it  unto  them, 
that  none  should  be  electors,  nor  elected  therein,  except  such  as 
were  visible  subjects  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  personally  con- 
federated in  our  churches.  In  these  and  many  other  w^ays,  he 
propounded  unto  them  an  endeavor  after  a  theocracy,  as  near 
as  might  be  to  that  of  Israel." 

(Mather,  Mag.,  vol.  1,  pp.  265,  6.) 

It  was  thenceforth,  wliile  the  charter  w^as  in  force,  "the 
sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon."  AVhen,  in  after  generations, 
this  was  partially  set  aside,  by  "  half  w^ay  covenants  "  and  other 
customs,  from  her  ecclesiastical  order,  there  sprang  forth  not  a 
few  sects,  which  by  division  and  combination  are  still  being 
multiplied. 

These,  when  combined  by  the  tie  of  species,  to  Presbyterian- 
ism and  Episcopacy,  present  a  very  formidable  opposition, 
which  extensively  compels  them,  in  New  England,  at  least,  to 
conform  to  her  usages,  customs,  logic,  and  vocabulary. 

Hence,  their  "church  order,"  being  "sufficiently  divine  by 
the  manner  in  which  it  took  its  rise  in  New  England,"  has  so 
far  permeated  Presbyterianism  itself,  as  to  subsist  at  times  un- 
der its  shadow  and  to  increasingly  revolutionize  all  that  was 
formerly  reliable:  not  only  by  its  spurious  effects  upon  govern- 
ment, but  extensively  in  doctrine  and  especially  in  the  matter 
and  manner  of  praise  in  divine  worship. 

Here  then,  beyond  paucity  of  material,  a  limited  field  and 
local  hostility,  while  the  writer  cannot  harmonize  with  the 
largest  portion  of  the  Presbyterian  family  in  the  United  States, 
who,  from  the  standpoint  of' their  own  ecclesiastical  constitution 
for  the  first  fifty  years  of  their  history  (the  Westminster  Stand- 
ards), especially  in  the  matter  and  manner  of  divine  praise  in 
religious  worship,  have  become  not  a  little  Congregationalized — 
his  task  is  still  much  more  difficult.  Sir,  by  "  thus  saying  thou 
reproachest  us  also. "    (Luke  xi.  45.) 


m  PREFACE. 

This  offence  he  would  desire  sacredly  to  avoid,  did  truth  permit. 
"  It  is  impossible,  but  that  offences  will  come  "  (Luke  xvii.  1), 
and  while"  woe  is  unto  him  through  whom  they  come" yet,  by 
presenting  those  symbols  of  the  common  Presbyterian  faith, 
which  have  stood  the  test  of  time  for  centuries,  and  noting  de- 
partures from  them  as  they  have  arisen,  the  diversity  of  secta- 
rian divisions  domiciled  by  the  elasticity  of  conscience  in  our 
age,  under  the  name  can  be  thus  more  intelligently  arranged 
and  correctly  valued.  Beside  this,  here  we  especially  see,  the 
vast  disadvantage  under  which  Presbyterians  are  placed  in  New 
England,  while  they  with  their  moral  worth,  industry  and  zeal 
support  that  civil  government  which  is  supposed  to  protect  them 
in  the  enjoyment  of  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

Again,  in  order  that  the  reader  may  be  aided  in  ascertaining 
what  Congregationalism  is  and  in  discovering  the  utter  irrecon- 
cilability of  the  two  species,  it  and  Presbyterianism,  the  author 
here  presents ^from  the  pens  of  their  own  writers,  under  the 
former  polity ,'*first,  the  "  covenant,"  which  is  the  corner-stone  of 
their  affiliated  superstructure,  the  germ,  the  mother  one  of  their 
existence. 

The  first  church  Boston  "  was  gathered  August  27th,  1630, 
under  the  following  Covenant :  "  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  obedience  to  his  holy  will  and  divine  ordinance,— 
AVe,  whose  names  are  hereunder  written,  being  by  his  most 
wise  and  good  providence  brought  together  into  this  part  of 
America,  in  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts ;  and  desirous  to  unite 
ourselves  into  one  congregation  or  church  under  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Head,  in  such  sort  as  becometh  all  those  whom 
he  hath  redeemed  and  sanctified  unto  himself,  do  hereby  solemnly 
and  religiously  (as  in  his  most  holy  presence)  promise  and  bind 
ourselves  to  walk  in  all  our  ways,  according  to  the  rule  of  the 
gospel,  and  in  all  sincere  conformity  to  his  holy  ordinances,  and 
In  mutual  love  and  respect  to  each  other,  so  near  as  God  shall 
give  us  grace." 

This  "Covenant  "  remains  unchanged,  although  the  church 
is  now  Unitarian,  as  is  also  the  first  church  of  their  order,  that 
of  Salem,  Mass.    (Dr.  R.  Ellis.) 

Secondly.  The  following  clear  statement  is  given  235  years 
after  "  Congregationalism  took  its  rise  in  New  England,"  and 
to  it  the  writer  trusts,  no  exceptions  v/ill  be  taken,  as  the  sys- 
tem is,  he  believes,  here  in  theory  fairly  presented.  It  is  from 
the  "  Ev.  Trai'.,"  of  April  23d,  1864,  which  says  : 

"  A  writer  in  the  Becorder  of  this  week  thus  defines  Congrega- 
tionalism : 

"  The  independent  churches  of  this  country  who  adhered  to 
the  faith  and  worship  of  the  Puritans,  were  early  driven  by  their 
isolation  to  congregate  together  for  mutual  encouragement  and 
counsel.  This  necessity  originated  Congregationalism,  or  at 
least  first  gave  it  currency.  If  it  is  not  an  American  term  it 
came  into  general  use  first  in  this  country,  and  to  this  day  is 
but  little  used  among  our  English  brethren. 


I>REFACE.  9 

"  Its  theory  is  that  the  local  church  parts  with  none  of  its  rights 
to  self-organization  and  self-government  by  consenting  to  the 
usage  of  seeking  advice  from  neighboring  churches,  in  certain 
cases.  When  the  pastors  and  delegates  of  invited  churches 
assemble,  the  convocation  is  called  an  Ecclesiastical  Council, 
whose  province  is  to  give  advice  only  on  the  subjects  referred  to 
in  the  letter  missive.  It  has  no  judicial  or  legislative  functions. 
It  can  bind  nobody  by  its  decision  without  the  consent  of  the 
party.  It  has  no  authority  to  try,  or  punish,  or  to  perpetuate 
its  doings  by  permanent  records.  It  has  no  Manual  of  Discip- 
line, no  liules  and  Orders  to  govern  its  proceedings.  It  is  sim- 
ply a  transient  convocation,  which  expires  forever  wiien  it  ad- 
journs without  day.  How  such  a  body  can  be  confounded 
with  an  Ecclesiastical  Court,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  ;  and 
yet  there  has  scarcely  been  an  important  council,  from  the  days 
of  Cotton  Mather  to  the  present  time,  which  has  not  put 
on  judicial  airs  and  assumed  to  appropriate  to  itself  the  terms 
of  established  courts. 

"It  is  a  beautiful  exhibition  of  Christian  liberty  and  church 
order  when  brethren,  or  local  churches,  in  their  perplexities 
or  their  important  movements,  call  together  their  sympathizing 
neighbors,  who  are  perhaps  as  well  informed  of  the  facts  in  the 
case  as  the  parties  themselves,  and  better  qualified  to  judge, 
simply  to  ask  their  fraternal  counsel,  without  the  forms  of 
pleading  or  of  trial.  Advice,  when  so  given,  in  the  spirit  of  the 
system,  is  more  truly  potent  than  any  decisions  of  General 
Assemblies,  or  orders  of  the  Bishop,  or  bulls  of  the  Pope. 

"  In  these  times  of  progressive  liberty,  it  is  vital  to  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Congregational  polity  that  the  simplicity  of  its  theory 
should  be  perpetuated  in  its  practice.  Pure  Congregationalism 
will  not  bear  the  least  mixture  of  authority  from  without  the 
independent  church.  The  touch  even  of  Consociation  soils 
it.  If  the  churches  do  not  like  the  action  of  councils,  the 
remedy  is  always  easy ;  they  have  only  to  fall  back  upon  their 
independence.  If  a  code  of  laws  is  thought  to  be  needful  for 
their  government,  they  may  well  take  one  of  the  numerous  sys- 
tems already  extant  in  other  denominations— it  matters  little 
which.  David  would  probably  have  lived  about  as  long  if  he 
had  gone  out  into  the  valley  of  Elah,  with  Saul's  armor  on,  to 
meet  Goliath,  as  Congregationalism  can  at  the  present  time,  with 
a  code  of  statutes  and  precedents  and  ecclesiastical  lawyers  to 
enforce  them."  That  these  polities  are  distinct  species,  which 
can  never  be  transmuted,  the  subsequent  historical  statements 
will  verify,  while  their  specific  influences  upon  the  welfare  of 
man  may  be  extensively  learned  ;  where  the  one  has  had  the  full 
opportunity  of  developing  its  entire  nature  and  tendencies,  of 
which  the  other,  on  the  same  soil,  has  been  by  it  deprived. 

"  The  question  is  always,  not  whether  accomplishments,  and 
virtues  and  piety  exist  within  this  or  that  system,  but  simply 
whether  the  system  itself  be  good  or  evil"  (Isaac  Taylor). 
Hoping,  that  imperfect  as  it  necessarily  is,  it  may  stimulate  the 


10  PREFACE. 

inquirer  after  truth,  in  distinguishing  things  that  differ,  to 
"  earnestly  contend  for  the  faith  which  was  once  delivered  unto 
the  saints  ;  "  in  suUtserviency  to  the  honor  of  her  King  and  the 
glory  of  the  Head  M  the  Church,  this  work  is  submitted  to  the 
candor  of  the  reader,  by  _ 

The  Author. 

Philadklphia,  1881. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Pilgrim  Fathers — Their  Church  order  defective — Presbyterianism 
— Waldenses  —  Calvin — ;Knox  —  Scotland  — England — Puritans — 
Ireland — Comparative  Notice — Shawraut — The  Puritans — Black- 
stone — Representation — Mrs.  Hutchinson — A  Synod — Woodbridge 
— Heretics — The  "  Eagle  Wing  " — A  Providential  Return — Clarke's 
Wharf — First  Stoves — Scotch  Bondmen — Scot's  Charitable  So- 
ciety. 

On  the  mere  meation  of  New  England,  our  thoughts  are 
immediately  directed  to  "  Plymouth  Rock." 

TJiere,  not  only  was  the  civil  polity,  but,  also,  the 
"  church  order  "  of  "  the  old  colony  "  adopted  ;  and  what- 
ever might  have  been  "  the  form  of  sound  words  "  chosen 
by  earlier  emigrants,  if  there  were  any,  1p  neighboring 
localities,  "  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  "  on  landing  at  that  spot, 
selected  and  determined  their  future  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment. 

Notwithstanding  the  influences,  to  some  extent,  of  the 
specific  religious  views  of  their  previous  pastor,  the  Rev. 
John  Roliinscn,  being  a  people  extensively  familiar  with 
the  Bible  in  its  varied  adaptations,  in  doctdne,  worship 
and  discipline,  they  prepared  for  themselves  a  code  of 
church  polit}^  almost  wholly  in  unison  with  the  teachings 
of  the  word  of  God. 

For  their  views  of  sound  doctrine  and  their  scriptural 
order  of  government,  they  were  previously  on  the  Conti- 
nent extensively  indebted  to  the  labors  of  John  Knox  in  a 
former  generation.  I  refer  to  this,  their  chosen  system,  as 
the  first  tangible  outline  of  doctrine,  worship  and  of  eccle- 
siastical order  adopted  in  those  colonies,  which  eventually 
formed  New  England — the  history  of  Presbyterianism  in 
which  I  undertake  (D.  V.)  to  write.  First,  "As  to  faith  and 
the  holy  sacraments — they  believed  the  Doctrinal  Articles 
of  the  Church  of  England,  as  also  of  the  Reformed 
Ciiurohes  of  Scotland,  Ireland,  France,  the  Palatinate, 
Geneva,  Svritzorland  and  the  United  Provinces,  to  bo 
agreeable  to  the  holy  oracles :  allowing  all  the  pious  meni- 

(11) 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

bers  of  the  churches  communion  with  them,  and  differing 
from  them  onlv  in  matters  'purely  ecclesiasticaV — {Princey 
N.  E.  Chron.,  vol.  i.,  p.  91.) 

The  successor  of  Mr.  Francis  Johnston  as  pastor  in  Am- 
sterdam in  1594-5,  was  "the  learned  Ainsworth."  He 
prepared  a  version  of  the  Psalms  in  metre.  These  the 
Pilgrims  in  all  their  pilgrimage  used.  In  their  "  perils  in 
the  deep  and  perils  in  the  wilderness  "  they  gave  to  "  God 
the  fruit  of  their  lips,"  and  "let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell 
in  them  richly,"  not  in  the  sickly  sentimental  tones  of 
modern  organ-lofts,  but  from  the  fulness  of  hearts  made 
joyful  by  the  Rock  of  their  salvation.  In  their  adopted 
version  the  poetry  was  very  defective,  yet  for  sixty  years  it 
continued  to  be  the  psalmody  of  the  First  Church  in  Ply- 
mouth. In  the  utterance  of  their  praise  to  God  as  an 
act  of  worship,  they  sang  by  note  ;  and  while  the  version  of 
Ainsworth  continued  to  be  used,  they  sang  without  reading 
the  line.     Their  cburch  order  is  tbus  recorded: 

"  Rule  3d,  of  cburch  government :  sec.  6th. 

"  That  the  officers  appointed  by  Christ  for  this  imbodied 
church  are,  in  some  respects,  of  three  sorts:  in  others  but 
two,  viz.:  1.  Pastors,  or  teaching  elders,  who  have  the 
power  both  of  overseeing,  teaching,  administering  the 
sacraments,  and  ruling  too,  and  being  chiefly  to  give  them- 
selves to  studying,  teaching  and  the  spiritual  care  of  the 
flock,  are,  therefore,  to  be  maintained. 

"2.  Me7'e  ruling  elders,  who  are  to  help  the  pastor  in  over- 
seeing and  ruling;  that  their  offices  be  not  temporary,  as 
among  the  Dutcli  and  French  churches,  but  continual. 
And  being  also  qualified  in  some  degree  to  teach,  they  ara 
to  teach  only  occasionally,  through  necessity,  or  in  the- 
pastor's  absence,  or  illness ;  but,  being  not  to  give  them- 
selves to  study,  or  teaching,  they  have  no  need  of  mainte- 
nance. That,  the  elders  of  both  sorts  form  the  presbytery 
of  overseers  and  rulers,  which  should  be  in  every  particu- 
lar church,  and  are  in  Scripture  sometimes  called  presby- 
ters or  elders,  sometimes  bishops  or  overseers,  sometimes 
guides,  and  sometimes  rulers.  3.  Deacons,  who  are  to 
take  care  of  the  poor,  and  of  the  church's  treasure,  to  dis- 
tribute for  the  support  of  the  pastor,  the  supply  of  the 
needy,  the  propagation  of  religion,  and  to  minister  at  the 
Lord's  table."     (Prince,  N.  E.  Chron.,  p.  92.)     In  this,  so 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

far  as  It  extends,  we  find  pure  Presbyterianism  defective 
only  in  two  essentials,  that  of  supplanting  the  ministra- 
tions of  the  ruling  elders  at  the  Lord's  table  by  the  inferior 
order  of  deacons,  who  in  this  arrangement  are  thrust  into 
the  office  of  their  superiors,  and  in  consequence  of  which, 
as  the  elders  were  thus  shorn  of  their  most  solemn  official 
duty  and  honor,  the  office  was  eventually  by  the  same  in- 
trusion, totally  superseded  in  New  England. 

This  otherwise  scriptural  order  of  government  was  also 
defective  from  its  isolated  position,  having  no  court  of 
reference,  review,  appeal,  nor  of  final  decision — nothing  be- 
yond mere  advice.  It  consequently  bore  within  itself  the 
seeds  of  dissolution,  the  germinating  of  which  caused  Jon- 
athan Edwards  to  declare,  "I  have  long  been  out  of  con- 
ceit of  our  unsettled,  independent,  confused  way  of  church 
government  in  this  land." 

Presbyterianism,  while  it  has  been  extensively  retained 
in  much  of  its  early  scriptural  simplicity  from  apostolic 
times  till  to-day,  by  the  faithful  Waldenses,  had,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  those  lands, 
which  then  enjoyed  the  labors  of  the  Reformers  and  their 
successors,  but  partiall}^  recovered  from  its  oblivious  sleep 
during  "  the  dark  ages." 

As  early  as  a.  d.  1535,  the  immortal  Calvin  had,  in  his 
"  Institutes  of  Religion  "  (including  doctrine,  worship,  and 
discipline),  presented  the  scriptural  form  of  church  gov- 
ernment; and  from  a.  d.  1541  till  a.  d.  1564,  he  successfully 
labored  to  apply  this  ecclesiastical  polity  in  the  scene  of 
his  ministry. 

John  Knox  returned  from  Geneva  to  Scotland  in  April, 
A.  D.  1559,  and  the  First  Reforming  General  Assembly 
of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland  met  in  Edinburgh  on  Dec.  20th, 
A.  D.  1560.  In  their  First  Book  of  Discipline,  "the  great 
lines  of  Presbyterian  government  and  discipline  were 
marked  out." 

It  was  "  ratified  and  established  by  an  act  of  Parliament 
in  A.  D.  1567 — as  the  public  and  avowed  Confession  of 
Faith  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,"  and  afterwards  further 
established  and  confirmed  by  acts  of  Parliament,  and  by 
lawful  General  Assemblies — until,  in  that  realm,  it  was 
superseded  by  the  Confession  of  Faith  agreed  upon  by  the 
Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westminster,  as  examined  and  ap- 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

proved  in  a.  d.  1647,  by  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  rati- 
fied by  act  of  Parliament  in  a.  d.  1649. 

England  had  preceded  Scotland  in  the  Reformation  ;  but 
had  by  no  means  obtained  equal  purity. 

The  doctrine  of  her  church  respecting  the  leading  truths 
of  tlie  gospel,  as  laid  down  in  the  thirty-nine  articles, 
-which  are  commonly  called  doctrinal,  was,  for  substance, 
the  same  with  that  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  (excepting 
on  the  tenets  of  the  imputation  of  the  guilt  of  the  first  sin 
of  Adam  to  his  posterity,  and  the  imputation  of  tlio 
righteousness  of  Christ  to  the  elect) ;  but  her  worship  was 
disfigured  by  a  great  number  of  Popish  superstitions. 

The  Romish  prelacy  was  retained  in  her  form  of  gov- 
ernment. The  supremacy  of  the  Pope  was  indeed  re- 
nounced; but,  the  sovereign  was  constituted  supreme 
head  of  the  church,  in  all  causes  ecclesiastical. 

Many,  who  were  nearly  of  the  same  principles  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  who  consequently,  were  dissatis- 
fied with  these  corruptions,  struggled  for  the  further  refor- 
mation of  the  National  Church  of  England ;  but,  without 
success. 

"The  Queen  and  Bishops  growing  more  severe  on  the 
Puritans,  it  only  alienates  them  more  from  the  Hierarchy, 
as  well  as  the  ceremonies,  and  turns  their  minds  to  the  Pres- 
byterian Discipline.  And  though  man}'  of  their  clergy  were 
deprived  and  silenced,  yet  many  others  by  the  favor  of 
several  great  men  in  court  and  council  stay  in  their  places 
upon  using  the  less  offensive  parts  of  the  liturgy,  without 
subscription.  And  now  Bancroft  and  Cowell  tell  us,  that, 
on  Nov.  20th,  1572,  this  Puritan  part  of  the  clergy  began  to 
erect  a  Presbytery  at  Wandsworth,  in  Surrey  ;  which  Ful- 
ler says  was  Ihe  first-born  of  all  Presbyteries  in  England, 
and  names  sixteen  of  the  clergy  belonging  to  it ;  that  May 
8th,  1582,  there  was  a  synod  of  sixty  ministers  of  Cam- 
bridgeshire, Suffolk  and  Norfolk  at  Cockfield,  in  Suffolk; 
and  the  summer  following  another  in  Cambridge  at  the 
commencement;  that  April  10th,  1588,  there  was  another 
of  the  Warwickshire's  classis  at  Coventry ;  that  by  Sept. 
1st,  1590,  the  Presbyterian  Discipline  so  grew  in  the  church, 
that  their  classes  spread  into  diverse  other  parts  of  the 
kingdom  and  had  their  Assemblies  at  London,  Cambridge^ 
Oxford,  Northampton,  Kittery,  Warwick,  Rutland,  Leices- 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

ter,  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Essex  and  other  places :  but  in  1591, 
the  High  Commission  and  Star  Chamber  courts  dissolved 
them.  In  the  spring  of  1603,  there  were  750  ministers  (i.  e., 
church  ministers)  in  twenty- five  of  the  forty  counties  in 
England,  and  twelve  of  Wales,  who  petitioned  King 
James  1st,  to  remove  the  ceremonies,  the  publick  reading 
of  the  books  of  the  Apocrypha,  Nonresidence,  Pluralities, 
and  the  Popish  canons.  And  Rushworth  tells  us  that  in 
1626,  the  country  was  so  overspread  with  Puritans,  that 
Williams,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  would  not  meddle  against 
them,  and  said,  he  was  sure  they  would  carry  all  at  the 
last.  Yet  all  this  time  there  were  but  few  separations  from 
the  established  church,  nor  would  the  law  allow  them  in 
England  till  King  William's  time."  (Prince,  N.  E.  Chron., 
p.  234.) 

Still,  their  labor  was  not  lost,  for  their  efforts  were  much 
blessed,  as  means  of  promoting  the  real  interests  of  religion 
in  that  kingdom,  and  preparing  the  way  for  the  reforma- 
tion which  followed. 

These  were  commonly  called  Puritans.  The  name  was 
probably  given  in  a.  d.  1564,  and  was  designed  to  stigma- 
tize those  who  did  not  conforui  to  the  Episcopal  liturgy, 
etc.,  etc.  Afterwards  when  Arminianism  arose,  they 
were  called  doctrinal  Puritans;  and  the  term  became  a 
stigma  for  all  Christians  who  were  sound  and  pure  "  in 
the  faith." 

In  Ireland,  although  the  great  body  of  the  natives  con- 
tinued to  be  Papists,  a  considerable  part  of  the  people  who 
were  descended  from  English  ancestors  embraced  the  refor- 
mation, nearly  after  the  model  of  their  mother  country, 
and  while  many  emigrants  from  Scotland  had  settled  in 
that  kingdom  (and  multiplied  until  afterward,  in  1734, 
they  numbered  700,000)  and  retained  the  profession  and 
worship  of  the  Scottish  church ;  yet  Episcopacy  was  es- 
tablished by  law  in  that  part  of  the  British  empire. 

In  attempting  to  purify  the  Anglican  establishment,  the 
Puritans,  finding  their  labors  unsuccessful,  a  part  of  them 
removed  from  "  the  tents  of  Kedar,"  and  a  church  colony 
of  their  people  reached  Holland  in  a.  d.  1608. 

After  sojourning  a  year  in  Amsterdam  they  removed  to 
Leyden.  "In  1609,  Mr.  Robinson's  church  there  chose 
Mr.  Brewster  assistant  to  him  in  the  place  of  an  elder, ^^ 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

(Prince,  p.  26.)  Finding  licentiousness  prevalent,  their 
sons  often  leaving  them  to  be  soldiers  and  sailors  in  the 
Dutch  service;  and  fearing,  that  in  a  few  years,  their  chil- 
dren would  have  become  Dutch  and  their  church  become 
extinct,  they,  in  1617,  began  to  think  of  removing  to 
America.  And  in  1620  they  record,  "the  greater  number 
to  stay  with  Mr.  Robinson  at  Leyden.  Their  elder  Mr. 
Brewster  to  go  with  the  other  party.  Those  who  go  first 
to  be  an  absolute  church  of  themselves  as  well  as  those 
that  stay:  with  this  proviso,  that  as  any  go  over  or  re- 
turn, they  shall  be  reputed  as  members,  without  further 
dismission  or  testimonial,  and  those  who  tarry  to  follow 
the  rest  as  soon  as  they  can."     {Prince,  p.  66.) 

The  history  of  their  designs,  sufferings  and  successes, 
until  they  adopted  their  "order  of  church  government," 
has  been  all  gratefully  chronicled  by  their  descendants — 
and  it  is  doubtful,  if  time  can  ever  obliterate  the  interest- 
ing story. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  we  return  to  their  "  church  order,"  as 
our  only  tangible  point  of  departure,  and  with  the  previous 
comparative  notice  of  its  want  of  identity  with  Presbyter- 
ianism  the  writer  shall  now  attempt  to  trace  the  intro- 
duction, growth,  decay,  revival  and  present  mission  of  the 
latter  ecclesiastical  polity  into  and  in  New  England. 

We  have  had  our  attention  directed  to  Plymouth  Rock, 
yet  but  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  population  of  New 
England  are  the  descendants  of  those  who  made  it  mem- 
orable, and  who  became  the  founders  of  "  the  old  colony." 
As  the  tidings  of  the  prosperity  of  the  "  Pilgrims,"  reached 
their  native  land,  encouraged  by  "good  news  from  afar 
country,"  colonies  of  Puritan  emigrants  prepared  in  a  few 
years  to  follow  them.  Of  these,  the  most  important  was 
that  of  Massachusetts  bay,  which  with  a  royal  charter, 
and  many  of  the  conveniences  of  life  (so  far  as  they  were 
then  known)  made  their  final  settlement  on  the  Peninsula 
of  Shawmut. 

Here,  an  ecclesiastical  transition  took  place,  of  which  we 
present  an  account  in  appendix  A.  '^Ceremony  mongers,^^ 
says  Mather  (Mag.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  249,  250),  "  drove  these  wor- 
thy men  out  of  their  native  country  into  the  horrid 
thickets  of  America-/-and  the  first  planters  in  New  Eng- 
land at  their  first  coding  over,  did,  in  a  public  and  printed 


/ode»  ^<^^ 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

address,  call  the  Church  of  England  their  dear  mother,  de- 
siring their  friends  therein,  to  "Recommend  them  unto  the 
mercies  of  God,  in  their  constant  prayers,  as  a  church  now 
springing  out  of  their  own  bowels ;  nor  did  they  think 
that  it  was  their  mother  who  turned  them  out  of  doors,  but 
some  of  their  angry  brethren,  abusing  the  name  of  their 
mother,  who  so  harshly  treated  them." 

Previous  to  landing  and  while  they  were  engaged  in  pre- 
paring places  of  habitation,  the  less  objectionable  portions 
of  the  Episcopal  prayer  book  were  in  use  on  each  Sabbath 
among  the  fifteen  hundred  persons  on  board  of  the  four-  j 
teen  ships  in  which  they  had  at  different  times  arrived.  V 
Now,  a  chasm  ensues — and  we  find  them  some  time  after  • 
landing,  no  longer  Episcopalians,  but  Congregationalists. 
A  wide  remove  was  soon  made  from  the  form,  under  which 
they  had  been  trained  in  their  native  land. 

Blackstone,  who  (so  far  as  is  known)  was  the  first  white 
man  who  slept  on  Shawmut,  and  who  claimed  the 
whole  peninsula,  for  thus  upon  it  obeying  the  demands  of 
nature,  although  a  stern  Episcopalian,  was  not  a  thorough 
Conformist,  and  he  told  the  newcomers,  "  that,  he  came 
from  England,  because  he  did  not  like  the  Lords  Bishops; 
but,  he  could  not  join  with  them  (the  Governor  and  colon- 
ists) because  he  did  not  like  the  Lords  Brethren."  To  avoid 
their  "  theocracy,"  he  retired  to  a  life  of  solitude  on  its 
banks  and  gave  his  name  to  the  Blackstone  river.  (Hutch- 
insoTh's  Hist,  of  Mass.,  p.  26.) 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  (with  the  Rev. 
Messrs.  Hooker  and  Stone)  in  1633,  "the  Governor  and 
council  and  elders  in  Boston  received  him  for  their 
teacher,  in  which  office  he  was  ordained  and  installed 
October  17th,  in  the  same  year. 

"  Mr.  Thomas  Leverett,an  ancient  member  of  Mr.  Cotton's 
church  in  England,  was  at  tlie  same  time  ordained  ruling 
elder."  "  The  order  of  proceeding  in  Mr.  Cotton's  ordina- 
tion was  intended  as  a  precedent,  and  the  Congregational 
churches  of  New  England  have  generally  conformed  there- 
to ever  since."  (Hut.,  p.  38.)  Cotton  had  officiated  for 
twenty  years  in  "  holy  orders,"  yet,  when  he  became  iden- 
tified with  this  new  form  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  they  gave 
him  a  new  ordination.  Hooker,  "  a  preacher  of  great  ce- 
lebrity," in  like  manner  received  anti})relatical  and  anti- 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

presbyterian  ordination.  This  new  form  became  enduring 
without  "  tactual  succession."  As  the  freemen  of  the  col- 
ony were  so  increased  in  a.  d.  1634,  that,  it  was  impracti- 
cable to  debate  and  determine  matters  in  a  body,  the 
Presbyterian  element  of  representation  was  forced  upon 
them  in  their  civil  affairs,  as  a  necessity,  but,  no  provision 
"had  been  made  for  it  in  their  charter."     {lb.,  p.  40.) 

A  similar  necessity  was  soon  forced  upon  them  in  their 
ecclesiastical  matters  also — "  for  which,  no  provision  had 
been  made  in  their  charter."  When  "Mrs.  Hutchinson 
set  up  meetings  of  the  sisters  and  sixty  or  eighty  prin- 
cipal women  attended  them,"  it  was  found  necessary 
to  resort  to  Presbyterial  order  (at  least  in  part)  and  to 
ignore  a  usage  of  our  modern  Congregational  churches 
(then  unknown)  "  the  result  of  council." 

Mere  advice  and  recommendation,  ministers  and  elders 
knew  from  the  Scriptures,  were  not  the  order  "  in  the  house 
of  God,  which  is  the  church  of  the  living  God,  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  truth,"  and  "  in  a.  d.  1637,  a  synod  was 
called  and  held,  before  which,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was 
charged  with  two  errors.  1.  That  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells 
personally  in  a  justified  person — and  2.  That  nothing  of 
sanctification  can  help  to  evidence  to  believers,  their  jus- 
tification."   (Hut.,  p.  57.) 

In  that  synod  (which  was  commenced  on  the  30th  day 
of  August  and  continued  three  weeks)  above  eighty  points 
or  opinions  were  condemned  as  erroneous.  The  "de- 
crees "  of  this  synod  were  signed  by  all  the  members  ex- 
cepting Mr.  Cotton.  He  maintained,  that  union  to  Christ 
preceded  faith  in  him.  (lb.,  p.  68.)  Ministers  and  elders 
(not  deacons)  constituted  that  synod  ;  and  in  their  whole 
polity,  as  thus  founded,  "  the  elders  had  great  influence 
with  the  people.  When  the  great  influence  of  Mr.  Cotton 
inclined  Mr.  Hooker  to  go  to  Connecticut,  to  be  out  of  his 
reach,  they,  the  people,  by  aid  of  the  elders  carried  the 
point."  (lb.,  p.  47.)  Presbyterianism  crept  so  closely  into 
all  their  church  and  educational  matters,  that  the  civil 
power  alone  could  at  times  prevent  its  influences. 
"  On  February  22d,  1633,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Roger  Williams 
and  Skelton,  of  Salem,  were  afraid,  lest  an  association  of 
ministers  in  and  about  Boston,  who  met  once  a  fortnight 
at  each  other's  house,  may  tend  to  promote  Presbyterian- 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

ism  and  so  endanger  the  liberty  of  the  churches."  {Felt^ 
HisL  of  Salem.)  "In  1642,  nine  persons  (the  first  gradu- 
ating class)  left  Harvard. 

"Benjamin  Woodbridge,  the  first-born  of  that  college 
(who  became  successor  to  Dr.  Twisse  at  Newbury),  although 
inclined  to  Presbyterianism — (to  use  Mr.  Mather's  words), 
was  not  malignantly  affected."  (lb.,  p.  107.) 

While  "  Congregationalism  took  its  rise  in  New  Eng- 
land," it  was  in  due  time  carried  to  England;  and  "  the 
oldest  church  of  the  Congregational  order  in  London,"  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  Parker's,  was  founded  in  1640,  by  Dr. 
Thos.  Goodwin,  President  of  Magdalen  College, "Oxford,  and 
afterward  chaplain  to  Cromwell.  (Christian  Insir.,  Feb. 
10th,  1877.)  "  The  Pilgrims,  with  their  elders  and  deacons 
had  a  different  order  in  1620,  and  the  '  ecclesiastical  tran- 
sition,' noticed,  by  which  Episcopalians  became  Congrega- 
tionalists,  confirms  the  position,  that  'it  took  its  rise  in 
New  England.'" 

Although  they  had  no  bishop  nearer  than  London,  they 
(according  to  the  Papal  order  in  England)  divided  the 
Bay  colony  into  parishes,  each  having  its  "  church  of  the 
parish."  "Of  the  22,000  emigrants  who  came  over  before 
1640,  no  less  than  4,000  it  is  said  had  been  Presbyterians 
in  England,"  and  while  this  persuasion  were  so  far  in  the 
minority,  yet  the  first  churches,  such  as  Salem,  Charlestown 
and  Boston  had  ruling  elders,  possibly  by  wa}^  of  com- 
promise, and  in  1646,  the  ministers,  with  probably  an 
elder  from  each  church,  met  in  synod  at  Cambridge,  Mass. 

They  "came  together,  not  to  enact  a  code  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal laws,  not  even  to  construct  an  original  system  of 
church  polity,  but  simply  to  compare  notes  and  usages, 
and  commit  to  writing  that  system  which  had  already 
sprung  into  use  among  them,  and  thus  make  a  declaration 
of  the  church  order,  wherein  the  good  hand  of  God  had 
moulded  them."  Hence,  "  the  manner  in  which  Congre- 
gationalism took  its  rise  in  New  England  renders  it  suffi- 
ciently divine,"  (Boston  Christian  Observatory,  vol.  i., 
no.  8,  Aug.,  1847,  indorsed  by  the  Year  Book  of  Congrega- 
tionalism for  1853.) 

"  Those  who  lived  in  the  next  age,  speak  of  this,  as  the 
aurea  aetas  (golden  age)  when  religion  and  virtue  flour- 
ished."    (Hut.,  p.  91.) 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

The  ministry,  supported  morally  by  the  scriptural  order 
of  ruling  elders  and  in  temporal  atiairs  by  the  strong  arm  of 
the  civil  law,  under  their  theocracy,  were  now,  not  only  re- 
spected in  the  colonies,  but,  some  of  them  were  invited  to 
return  and  assist  in  deliberations  in  Great  Britain.  "Cot- 
ton, Hooker,  and  Davenport  were  invited  to  the  Westmin- 
ster assembly  in  1643. 

"Cotton  would  have  gone,  but  he  had  no  company. 
Davenport,  of  New  Haven,  would  have  gone,  but  his  con- 
gregation having  but  one  minister  could  not  spare  him. 
Hooker  did  not  like  the  business  "  {Hut,  p.  112);  and  as 
Congregationalism  often  on  the  popular  breath  makes  a 
man  absolute  and  affords  ample  scope  for  ambition,  so  he, 
remembering  doubtless  the  dominant  sway  of  Mr.  Cotton 
at  Boston,  and  the  opportunity  which  was  now  offered  to 
him.  to  be  at  least  his  peer,  in  a  sister  colony,  "  was  about 
that  time  framing  a  system,  or  plan  of  church  government, 
which  was  designed  for  the  New  England  churches^  let  the 
determination  at  Westminster  be  what  it  would."  (76., 
p.  112.)  In  his  opinion  they  had  as  yet,  rememher,  no 
plan  of  church  government  in  "the  New  England 
churches." 

Vast  events  are  at  times  suspended  on  trifling  consider- 
ations— the  want  of  company  on  the  part  of  Cotton  ;  the 
want  of  an  ardent  desire  for  the  welfare  of  the  entire  church 
in  the  British  Empire  on  the  part  of  a  congregation  at 
New  Haven,  and  the  spirit  of  "  Diotrephes  "  in  Hooker,  pre- 
vented the  identifying  of  these  ministers,  with  the  only 
grand  inquest  of  competent  men,  made  under  vow,  on  the 
systematic  doctrinal  teachings  of  the  word  of  God,  which 
was  ever  held. 

"  I,  A.  B.,  do  solemnly  vow,  that  in  this  assembly  of 
which  I  am  a  member,  I  will  set  down  nothing  in  doctrine, 
but  what  is  most  agreeable  to  God's  word,  and  nothing  in 
form  of  discipline  but  what  will  make  most  for  God's 
glory." 

If  they  had  gone  thither,  imbibed  the  spirit  of  the  as- 
sembly and  returned  with  it  to  bless  New  England — possi- 
bly, the  sword  of  persecution  might  (in  these  colonies)  have 
slept  in  its  scabbard— or,  they  might  at  least  have  pre- 
vented those  "  usages  of  the  churches,"  which  now  allow, 
by  a  figment  of  local  statute  law  under  their  Athenian 


INTRODUCTION,  21- 

democracy,  "  an  increase  of  sinful  men  "  to  sweep  away  to 
the  moonliglit  of  Christianity,  to  Unitarianism,  the  endow- 
ments established  and  the  trusts  created  by  pious  persons, 
for  the  glory  of  God,  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost. 

I  say  possibly  only — for  their  theocratic  form  of  union 
of  church  and  state  afforded  too  much  scope  to  the  am- 
bition of  civil  rulers  here,  to  be  easily  foregone,  and  "  the 
first  authoritative  and  official  civil  action  against  Presby-      , 
terianism,  in  New  England,  was  taken  in  1643,  or  1644,      F 
against  those,  who  would  sustain  the  teachings  of  its  sym-     f 
bols" — for,  "several  persons,  who  came  from  England  in 
1643,  made  a  muster  to  set  up  Presbyterian  government 
under  the  authority  of  the  assembly  at  Westminster ;  but, 
a  New   England  assembly,  the  General  court,  soon  put 
them  to  the  rout."     (Ih.,  p.  112.)     In  this,  we  see  the  atti- 
tude of  New  England  towards  Presby  terianism  from  the 
first.     It  must  not  be  tolerated. 

"  Lechford  in  1641,  says,  of  late,  divers  of  the  ministry 
have  had  set  meetings  to  order  church  matters,  by  which 
it  is  conceived,  they  bend  towards  Presi^yterian  rule." 
(HuL,  Boston,  1764.)  As  the  Star  Chamber,  in  1591,  extin- 
guished Presbyterianism  in  England,  this  persuasion  were 
equally  powerless  in  New  England  under  the  theocracy. 
There  for  generations  they  were  not  allowed  to  exist. 

"From  1637  till  1656  they  had  general  quietness  on 
ecclesiastical  matters,  yet,  no  religious  opinions  but  their 
own  could  be  tolerated,  or,  they  would  take  the  lives  of  here- 
tics.''    (Hut.,  p.  175.) 

The  hand  of  Divine  Providence  prevented  such  a  mani- 
festation of  the  spirit  of  their  theocracy  in  one  particular 
case;  which  I  now  mention.     Presbyterians  in  Scotland, 
being  assured  by  letters,  that  they  might  exercise  their 
church  government  in  New  England,  sent  over  an  agent 
who  pitched  upon  a  tract  of  land,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Merrimac  river;  and  in  1636,  the  "Eagle  Wing,"  with  140 
passengers,  accompanied  b}^  those  eminent  servants  of  God, 
Blair  and  Livingston,  sailed  from  Carrickfergus  to  found  a      \ 
colony  of  Presbyterians  on  the  Merrimac.     The  overruling 
of  Divine  Providence  was  seen  in  the  failure  of  their  en-       1 
terprise.     By  stress  of  weather  the  vessel  was  forced  to      ' 
put  back  and  the  project  was  abandoned. 

This  portion  of  the  wilderness  was  then  assigned  to  an- 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

other  people,  and  these  ministers  of  Christ  had  large  doors 
of  usefulness  opened  to  them,  in  and  on  behalf  of  their 
native  land  at  one  of  the  trying  periods  of  her  history. 

It  was  providential  that  they  returned,  as  they  would 
assuredly,  notwithstanding  their  letters,  have  been  driven 
off,  if  they  had  found  their  way  to  the  Merrimac.  Noth- 
ing could  have  saved  them  then,  as  residents  in  New  Eng- 
land, but  changing  their  religion — and  they  were  not  the 
men,  nor  were  those  whom  they  accompanied  the  people, 
to  do  this. 

Such  was  the  overruling  of  Divine  Providence  that  they 
were  (with  others)  instrumental  in  raising  in  their  own 
land  a  people,  who  nearly  a  century  afterwards  should 
come  to  the  Merrimac  and  found  a  colony  of  Presbyterians, 
at  a  time  when  Presbyterianism  was  permitted  under  cer- 
tain conditions  to  exist  in  the  unclaimed  wilderness. 

With  the  hermetical  seal  of  the  sword  upon  Presbyte- 
rianism in  these  colonies,  those,  of  this  persuasion,  who,  as 
adventurers,  during  this  century,  found  their  way  hither, 
had  to  succumb  in  conscience  and  principle  to  the  "Lord's 
Brethren." 

Individuals  of  this  character  entered  the  colony  at  an 
early  period  in  its  history — and  Clarke's  street  and  Clarke's 
wharf  in  Boston  perpetuate  the  name  of  one,  a  Scotch 
physician,  who  in  his  profession  accumulated  a  consider- 
able amount  of  property  in  the  town.  As  we  learn  from 
a  codicil  in  his  will,  he  in  all  probability,  first  substituted 
stoves  for  open  fire-places  in  chimneys. 

But,  "tell  it  not  in  Gath,"  the  first  numerous  arrival  of 
Presb34erians  in  New  England  after  a.  d.  1640,  were  bond- 
men. "  They  w^ere  transported  from  their  native  land  and 
sold  in  America,  for  fidelity  to  their  oaths  of  allegiance  to 
King  Charles  the  Second.  Their  misfortunes  overtook 
them  for  a  great  fault.  They  had  sworn  to  their  own  hurt 
to  a  Papal  monarch,  and  they  \vould  not  change.  Not 
only  did  they  with  many  others  invite  him  to  ascend  his 
native  throne,  but,  they  were  disposed  to  aid  him  in  his 
ambition  to  restore  Popery  to  the  three  kingdoms,  and  for 
this  purpose  (most  blindly  it  would  seem)  placed  them- 
selves under  him  in  opposition  to  '  the  State  of  England.  ' 
It  was  therefore  (continues  Dr.  D'Aubigne)  a  remarkable 
and  a  sorrowful  spectacle,  wdiich  might  then  be  viewed,  on 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

the  borders  of  Scotland ;  one   Christian  army  advancing 
against  another  Christian  army. 

"  This  sight  has  no  doubt  been  too  often  witnessed  in 
history.  But,  in  most  cases,  the  troops  which  march 
against  each  other  are  Christian  only  in  name,  while  the 
two  forces  of  Scotland  and  England  possessed  (to  speak 
generally)  both  the  spirit  and  the  reality  of  Christianity." 
They  read  the  Bible  in  the  same  tongue,  sung  the  songs- of 
Jehovah  in  the  same  version,*  and  prayed  each  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  other  to  the  same  God,  through  the  one 
Mediator. 

Gladly  would  I  say,  "publish  it  not  in  the  streets  of  As- 
kelon,"  for  at  such  a  spectacle  the  "  uncircumcised  tri- 
umph." But,  so,  it  was.  At  Dunbar,  on  September  3d, 
1650,  the  Scotch  were  discomfited.  Besides  slaughtering 
4,000  men,  Cromwell  took  10,000  prisoners,  exclusive  of 
officers. 

Of  these  "the  Governors  of  the  kingdom"  banished  at 
least  a  great  number  to  the  colonies,  where  they  were  sold 
to  several  years  of  servitude  to  defray  the  expenses  of  their 
transportation;  or,  to  increase  the  wealth  of  those  who 
bought  and  sold  them.  As  men  were  of  old  to  "buy 
fields  for  money,  subscribe  evidences,  seal  them,  and  take 
witnesses  in  the  land  of  Benjamin  and  in  the  cities  of 
Judah  "  (Jer.  xxxii.  44),  so,  in  the  capital  of  New  Eng- 
land,  Presbyterians  were  bought  for  money,  evidences  / 
subscribed  and  sealed,  and  witnesses  taken  in  the  trans- 
action, and  the  entire  matter  placed  on  record,  as  if  they 
had  been  simply  parcels  of  real  estate,  instead  of  living 
men.  By  ordinance  of  Parliament,  dated  the  20th  day 
of  October,  1651,  in  the  cargo  of  the  "John  and  Sara," 
planters'  stuff,  provisions  and  Scotch  prisoners  were  im- 
ported at  Boston  free  of  duty ;  and  at  the  request  of 
Thomas  Kemble,  the  consignee,  the  following  entry  was 
made  on  the  Registry  of  Deeds,  for  Suffolk  county,  Mass., 
on  the  13th  day  of  May,  a.  d.  1652. 

List  of  passengers  in  "the  John  and  Sara."  Of  two 
hundred  and  sixty-two  I  give  the  following  names : 

*  Cromwell  on  one  occasion,  on  the  Scottish  border,  before  engaging 
in  battle,  sang  with  his  army  the  117th  Psalm  in  the  Presbyterian  ver- 
sion, and  he  with  the  68th  led  his  men  to  victory  at  Dunbar. 


24  INTRODUCTION. 

Donald  Roye,  Jas.  Moore,  Walter  Jackson,  Daniel  Sim- 
son,  John  Rosse,  Daniel  Hogg,  Hugh  McKay,  John  Mc- 
Donnel,  Wmr  Stewart,  Alester  Grant,  David  Patterson. 

These  were  "Registered  at  Gravesend,  at  the  Search 
office,  on  Nov.  8th,  1651,  by  John  Bradley,  Sealer,  with 
the  arms  of  the  Commonwealth,"  and  entered  in  Boston  as 
stated  above  by  "  F.  Edward  Rawson,  Recorder." 

"  Captain  Greene  had  orders  to  deliver  them  to  Thomas 
Kemble,  of  Charlestown,  who  was  to  sell  them,  and  with  the 
proceeds  to  take  freight  for  the  West  Indies."  (i\\  E.  H. 
and  G.  R.,  vol.  1.,  p.  377.)  "  By  order  of  the  '  State  of  Eng- 
land,' many  Irish  Presbyterian  people  were  also  sent  to 
New  England.  On  their  arrival  they  were  sold  by  those 
at  whose  expense  they  had  been  brought  over  to  any  of  the 
inhabitants  who  were  in  want  of  slaves  or  servants.  There 
arrived  in  1654  a  ship  called  the  '  Goodfellow,"  Captain 
Geo.  Dell,  with  a  large  number  of  emigrants  of  the  above 
description,  two  of  whom  were  thus  sold."  (From  an  ori- 
ginal paper  of  the  time,  in  possession  of  Frederic  Kidder, 
Esq.) 

"  May  10th,  1654,  I,  George  Dell,  master  of  the  ship 
called  '  Goodfellow,'  have  sold  to  Mr.  Samuel  Symonds  two 
of  the  Irish  youthes  I  brought  over  by  order  of  '  the  State 
of  England  ' — the  name  of  one  of  them  being  William  Dal- 
ton  and  of  the  other  Edward  Welch — for  the  sum  of  six 
and  twenty  pounds,  in  corn,  merchantable  or  live  cattle,  at 
or  before  the  end  of  October  next.  Geo.  Dell." 

(In  Salem  Court  Files,  p.  77  ;  vol.  viii.,  H.  and  G.  R.) 

"  It  is  probable  that  some,  or  many  of  these  Scotch  were 
sent  to  Barbadoes,  as  all  their  names  do  not  seem  to  appear 
in  any  other  way  in  this  country  excej^ting  on  this  list." 

Governor  Hutchinson's  collection  of  original  papers  gives 
an  extract  of  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  to  the 
Lord-General  Cromwell,  dated  at  Boston  in  New  England, 
28th  of  5th  month,  1651,  respecting  some  prisoners  of  the 
same  class  of  persons  included  in  the  above  list,  sent  over 
before  these  arrived.  "The  Scots,  whom  God  delivered, 
into  your  hands  at  Dunbar,  and  whereof  sundry  were  sent 
hither,  we  have  been  desirous  (as  Ave  could)  to  make  their 
yoke  easy.     Such  as  were  sick  with  scurvy  or  other  dis- 


INTRODUCTION.  25 

eases,  have  not  wanted  physic  or  chyrurger}^  They  have 
not  been  sold  for  slaves  to  perpetual  servitude,  but  for  six, 
seven  or  eight  years,  as  we  do  our  own — and  he  that 
bought  the  most  of  them  (I  hear)  buildeth  houses  for 
them,  for  every  four  a  house,  and  layeth  some  acres  of 
ground  thereto,  which  he  giveth  them  as  their  own, 
requiring  three  days  in  the  week  to  work  for  him  by  turns 
and  four  days  for  themselves,  and  promiseth,  as  soon  as 
they  can  repay  him  the  money  he  laid  out  on  them,  he 
will  set  them  at  liberty."     (lb.,  p.  380.) 

As  these  Scotch  and  Irish  were  considered  "  dissenters," 
their  religious  opinions  could  not  be  tolerated  under  the 
charters  of  any  of  the  New  England  colonies.* 

Consequently,  when  their  years  of  servitude  expired, 
they  found  themselves  in  a  position  of  much  trial.  They 
were  ex}~)atriated  from  their  families,  from  the  places  of 
their  fathers'  sepulchres,  and  from  their  chosen  form  of 
religious  worship. 

They  had  endured  defeat,  oppression,  toil  and  poverty, 
and  now  when  "strangers  in  a  strange  land,"  they  still  set 
their  trust  upon  the  Lord,  and  endeavored  (according  to 
their  opportunity)  to  do  good. 

Their  trials  taught  them  to  ''  know  the  heart  of  a 
stranger,"  and  their  charity  prompted  the  adoption  of 
approi:)riate  means  of  relief  on  behalf  of  those  who  might 
in  future  come  from  their  native  land  and  require  as- 
sistance. 

Consequently,  they  obtained  the  honor  of  establishing 
the  oldest  eleemosynary  society  in  America — "the  Scots' 
Charitable  Society  "  of  Boston. 

Of  it,  the  first  meeting  was  held  on  January  6th,  1657, 
when  the  following  preamble  was  adopted  and  signed : 

"  We  whose  names  are  underwritten,  all  in  the  most  part 
present,  did  agree  and  conclude  for  the  relief  of  ourselves, 
and  any  other  for  the  which  we  may  see  cause,  to  make  a 
box,  and  every  one  of  us  to  give  as  God  shall  move  our 

*PIyniontli  and  Massachusetts  colonies  continued  separate  until  Oc- 
tober 7th,  1691,  when  they  were  united  by  King  Willi;uu  and  Queen 
Mary  as  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven  colonies  were  separate  governments  till  April  23d,  1662,  when 
King  Charles  made  them  Connecticut  Colony  in  New  England.  {Hist. 
1744,  p.  73.) 


26  INTRODUCTION. 

hearts,  whose  blessing  and  direction  we  do  from  our  hearts 
desire  to  have  from  him  who  is  able  to  do  abundantly  above 
all  that  we  are  able  to  ask  or  think,  both  in  the  beginning 
and  managing  of  that  which  we  do  intend ;  and  therefore 
that  we  may  express  our  intention  and  become  our  own  in- 
terpreters (leaving  those  that  shall  come  after  us  to  do  bet- 
ter than  we  have  begun)  hoping  that  by  the  assistance  of 
the  great  God,  who  can  bring  small  beginnings  to  greater 
perfection  than  we  for  the  present  can  think  of,  or  expect, 
and  likewise  we  hope  that  God,  who  hath  the  hearts  of  all 
men  in  his  hand,  and  can  turn  them  which  way  soever  he 
pleaseth,  will  double  our  spirits  upon  them  and  make  them 
more  zealous  for  his  glory,  and  the  mutual  good  one  of  an- 
other, and  therefore  knowing  our  own  weakness  to  express 
ourselves  in  this  particular,  we  leave  ourselves  and  it  both 
to  God  and  to  the  word  of  his  grace,  and  do  desire  to  declare 
our  intentions  about  which  we  have  agreed. 

"  That  is  to  say,  that  we  whose  names  are  inserted  in  this 
book,  do  and  will,  by  God's  assistance,  give  as  God  will 
move  us  and  as  our  ability  will  bear  at  our  first  entering. 

"  1.  But  it  is  agreed  that  none  give  less  at  their  first  en- 
tering than  twelve  pence,  and  then  quarterly  to  pay  six' 
pence. 

"  2.  And,  that  this  our  benevolence  is  for  the  relief  of 
ourselves,  being  Scottish  men,  or  for  any  of  the  Scottish 
nation  whom  we  may  see  cause  to  help  (not  excluding  the 
prudential  car^  of  the  respective  prudential  townsmen 
whose  God  shall  cast  away  any  of  us  or  them)  but  rather 
as  an  addition  thereunto. 

"  3.  And,  it  is  agreed  that  there  shall  nothing  be  taken  out 
of  the  box  for  the  first  seven  years  for  the  relief  of  any  (the 
box  being  yet  in  its  minority). 

"  4.  And  it  is  agreed  that  there  shall  be  one  chosen  (one 
of  good  report,  fearing  God  and  hating  covetousness)  quar- 
terly to  receive  the  duties  of  said  box,  likewise  what  lega- 
cies may  be  left  unto  it. 

"5.  And  that  the  first  box-master  shall  give  up  all  the 
revenues  of  said  box  unto  the  next  one  that  is  chosen,  and 
so  continue  until  the  company  may  see  any  inconvenience 
in  it  or  cause  to  alter  it. 

"  6.  And  it  is  further  agreed,  that  our  children  shall  have 
the  same  privilege  with  ourselves;  they  entering  (when 
they  are  grown  up)  orderly. 


INTRODUCTION.  27 

"7.  And  it  is  further  agreed  that  those  who  doth  wilfully 
neglect  to  pay  their  duty,  and  have  entered  for  the  space 
of  a  twelvemonth,  together,  shall  have  no  benefit  hereafter 
by  said  box. 

"  The  names  of  those  who  first  began  to  enter  the  box, 
sixth  of  Jimuary,  1657  :  Robert  Porteous,  first  chosen  box- 
master;  William  Cosser,  Alexander  Simson,  George  Thomp- 
son, James  Moore,  James  Grant,  Thomas  Dewer,  William 
Gibson,  Alexander  Grant,  Andrew  Jameson,  William  Bal- 
lant3're,  William  Speed,  James  Inglish,  John  Clark,  Peter 
Grant,  John  Kneeland,  Thomas  Palsous,  William  Ander- 
son, James  Webster,  Thomas  Shearer,  John  McDonald, 
George  Trumble,  Alexander  Boyle,  John  Bennet,  James 
Adams,  Malcolm  Maktallome,  John  Mason." 

I  present  this  long  instrument,  not  only  to  show  their 
manner  of  doing  good,  but  especially  that  the  reader  may 
discover  from  its  tone  and  spirit  what  manner  of  men  they 
were;  men  "fearing  God  and  hating  covetousness." 

By  an  expression  in  their  preamble  to  "  rules  and  laws," 
adopted  in  1684,  it  may  be  inferred  that  to  many  of  them 
their  wives  and  families  had  not  come,  and  that  others  had 
married  in  the  land. 

The  surname  of  three  or  more  of  these  expatriated  men 
exist  in  their  descendants  in  Boston  after  a  lapse  of  two 
centuries.  What  efforts  they  made  to  obtain  public  or  re- 
ligious worship  in  the  Presbyterian  form  and  a  pastor,  if 
any,  we  know  not,  but  in  1662  the  Rev.  James  Keith  came 
from  Aberdeen  to  Boston,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude 
that,  considering  the  "  clannishness  of  the  Scotch,"  he  must 
have  done  what  he  could  to  have  gathered  together  these 
"  dispersed  of  Israel  "  here,  who,  although  they  were  then 
slaves,  were  by  birth  his  countrymen. 

The  record  of  his  labors  previous  to  1664  appears  to  be 
lost.  At  that  date  he  was  settled  as  pastor  at-- West  Bridg- 
water, where  he  died  in  1719.     (Barb.,  p.  531.) 


28  HISTORY   OF    PRESBYTERIANISM 


CHAPTER  I. 

Huguenots,  1686— First  Presbyterian   Church— Their   Lot   in  1704— 

•   Forbidden  to  build  for  eleven  years — 1716,  first  I^resbyterian  Meeting 

House  built  in   Boston — Prayers  in  Frencii — House  sold  in  1748 — 

LeMercier — Bought  by  enemies  of  Whitefield,  and  it  became  a  Mass 

House — French  Presbyterian  ism  extinct. 

No  ecclesiastical  organization  being  permitted  to  the 
Scotch,  these  detached  Presbyterians  in  due  time  either  re- 
turned to  their  native  land,  went  to  other  provinces,  or  be- 
came absorbed  by  the  churches  of  the  colony.  "Absorbed." 
Thus,  of  the  one  hundred  souls  given  by  the  "  Privy  Coun- 
cil "  to  the  Laird  of  Pitlochie,  who  sailed  with  them  in 
September,  1685,  from  Leith  road  for  New  Jersey,  and  of 
the  surviving  one  hundred  and  forty  persons,  out  of  two 
hundred  others  (three  hundred  in  all),  who  in  the  same 
vessel  left  Scotland  voluntarily  to  escape  persecution — 
when  pursued  by  Mr.  Johnston  (the  son-in-law  and  sur- 
vivor of  Pitlochie)  for  their  four  years'  service,  the  most 
part  came  to  New  England. 

In  Waterbury,  Connecticut,  the  Rev.  John  Eraser,  one 
of  these  exiles  (and  afterwards  minister  of  Alness,  in 
Scotland),  married  Mrs.  Jean  Moffat,  who  had  suffered 
prosecution  in  the  same  manner  as  her  husband  did,  and 
for  whom,  her  father  had  paid  at  sundry  times  one  thou- 
sand merks  of  fine,  on  account  of  her  absenting  herself 
from  the  parish  church,  and  frequenting  field  meetings, 
jjrior  to  her  transportation.  They  continued  in  New  Eng- 
land until  they  heard  of  King  William's  accession  to  the 
throne.  Then  they  returned  to  Scotland."  (Acct.  of  Rev. 
Jas.  Fraser,  of  Pitcalzian.) 

Those  speaking  the  English  language  were  not  allowed 
to  introduce  Presbyterianism  into  either  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Colonies.  It,  however,  was  brought  in,  in  "  an  un- 
known tongue." 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  29 

"About  the  middle  of  the  16th  century  (says  Mosheim) 
all  the  French  churches  without  exception,  entered  into 
the  bonds  of  fraternal  communion  with  the  church  of 
Geneva,"  and  on  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  Oc- 
tober 24th,  1685,  nearly  a  million  of  these  Presbyterians 
were  obliged  to  escape  from  their  native  land.  The  term 
Huguenot,  by  which  this  people  were  known,  has  puzzled 
etymologists,  but,  "  on  November  11th,  1560,  the  Count  de 
Villars,  Lieutenant-General  in  Languedoc,  in  a  letter  to 
the  King  of  France,  calls  the  rioters,  Calvinists,  Hu- 
guenots, and  this  is  the  first  time  the  term  is  found 
in  the  Registers  of  that  province  applied  to  the  Protes- 
tants." (76.) 

As  "  godliness  is  profitable  for  all  things,  having  prom- 
ise of  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to 
come,"  and  as  Calvinism  is  the  most  perfect  embodiment 
of  "  the  truth  which  is  according  to  godliness,"  so,  those 
who  consistently  profess  it,  are  always  "  diligent  in  busi- 
ness," maintaining  "  good  works  for  necessary  uses,"  and 
are  *'  not  a  whit  behind  the  chiefest  of  any  sect  in  subdu- 
ing the  earth,  obtaining  subsistence,  stimulating  commerce, 
promoting    convenience,   and  producing   traffickers,  who 
'are  among  the  honorable  of  the  earth.'"     Consequently, 
this  masterly  characteristic  stroke  of  polic}^  of  the  Jesuits 
and  of  "the  prince  of  this  world,"  drew  from  the  arteries 
of  the  nation,  a  large  portion  of  her  vitality.  "During  the 
persecution  which  ensued  above  800,000  fled  from  France. 
England  gained  immensely  by  this:  at  least  50,000  arti- 
sans sought  refuge  in  London  and  introduced  the  manu- 
facture of  silk,  crystal  glasses,  jewelry  and  other  fine  works, 
many  of  them  before  unknown,  but  ever  since  successfully 
prosecuted  in  England."     (Anderson''s  Hist,  of  Commerce.) 
"  They  carried  with  them  a  vital  faith,  frugal  habits,  and 
the  knowledge  of  new  sources  of  useful  and  elegant  indus- 
try.    Their  posterity  are  living  witnesses  of  what  France 
has  lost  by  the  atrocious  cruelties  with  which  she  forced 
them  from  her  soil."     While  most  of  those  who  fled  to 
America  went  to  the  colonies  which  now  form  the  South- 
ern and  Middle  States,  still,  not  a  few  of  them  came  to  New 
England. 

I  mention  first  those  who  came  to  Rhode  Island,  where, 
by  law  then,  it  was  supposed,  it  is  said,  every  Christian  sect 


so  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

excepting  Roman  Catholics,  should  enjoy  all  the  privileges 
of  freemen.  "On  Oct.  12th,  1686,  an  agreement  was  made 
by  the  Rev.  Ezekiel  Carre  and  P.  Berton  with  the  Narra- 
gansett  proprietors  for  a  place  called  Newberry  plantation, 
but,  this  being  too  far  from  the  sea,  (Rochester)  now 
Kingston,  was  selected  and  a  new  agreement  made  at  4s. 
per  acre,  i)ayai)le  in  three  years  at  six  per  cent.  Each 
family  were  to  have  one  hundred  acres  if  they  desired  it, 
and  a  proportion  of  meadow.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Carre  was  to 
have  15U  acres  gratis,  100  were  assigned  for  a  glebe  and 
fifty  acres  to  support  a  Protestant  schoolmaster. 

"Forty-five  families  commenced  tlie  settlement;  built  a 
church  and  twenty-five  dwelling-houses."  Of  the  dimen- 
sions of  their  church  and  its  appearance,  we  have  no  re- 
cord, but,  as  their  soil  was  lawfully  n])tained,  probably 
they  were  not  unduly  liindered  in  building  it  on  their  own 
land  by  their  surrounding  religionists. 

As  Presbyterians,  after  their  distress  as  fugitives  from 
persecution  was  relieved,  they  found  no  sympathy  on  New 
England  earth,  and  even  as  early  as  "1687,  the  Atherton 
company  petitioned  for  the  Refugees'  land  to  be  sold  to 
them."  If  not  "the  filth  of  the  earth,"  they  appeared  to 
be  in  the  colony  as  "the  offscouring  of  all  things." 

In  1689  (England  being  at  war  with  France)  a  French 
fleet  appeared  off"  the  coast,  and  for  fear  they  should 
aid  their  countrymen  in  their  native  land,  to  whom  they 
had  been  so  deeply  indebted  in  1685,  for  banisliment,  and 
slaughter  and  loss,  the  refugees  were  required  to  present 
themselves  to  John  Green,  Esq.,  at  Warwick,  and  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  British  crown.  In  consideration 
of  which,  they  were  to  remain  undisturbed,  behaving 
peaceably."     (Arnold.) 

"  They  prospered  for  some  years  until  they  were  dis- 
persed by  the  lawless  conduct  of  their  neighbors."  (76.) 
Contests  for  jurisdiction  among  the  plantations  made 
their  surroundings  disagreeable,  and  while  they  were  for 
peace,  they  had  to  abandon  in  a  few  years  their  wilderness 
homes  on  account  of  the  distress  to  which  they  were  sub- 
jected. 

By  or  before  Sept.,  1699,  all  the  forty-five  families  but 
about  two  had  left  for  New  York  or  elsewhere,  excepting  a 
few  who  had  removed  previously  to  Boston.     "  In  1705 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  31 

(August  20th)  Dr.  Pierre  Ayrault  represented  the  outrage 
on  the  French  settlers  committed  some  years  before,  to 
Gov.  Dudley  in  a  remonstrance  with  great  minuteness.'' 
"  It  was  the  most  flagrant  case  that  could  be  brought 
against  the  people,"  but  it  was  considered  to  be,  "one  of 
those  acts  of  border  violence  with  which  the  histories  of 
all  new  countries  abound,  for  which  the  government  could 
not  be  held  fairly  responsible."     (Am.,  vol  ii.,  p.  21.) 

"  In  Br.  S.  P.  0.,  New  England,  vol.  xiii.,  is  a  plot  of  the 
French  town,  containing  the  names  of  all  the  families  on 
their  separate  lots."     (lb.) 

While  their  plantation  was  being  abandoned  by  border 
violence  and  distress  occasioned  by  factions  contending 
for  jurisdiction;  of  them,  individuals  emigrated  to  New- 
port, and  when  an  effort  was  made  to  establish  an  Episco- 
pal church  in  Rhode  Island,  tlie  petition  asking  aid  from 
the  home  government  (through  the  Earl  of  Bellemonte)  was 
signed  by  sixteen  persons,  headed  by  two  of  the  Hugue- 
nots, Gabriel  Bernon  and  Pierre  Ayrould.  Though  they 
were  Presbyterians,  they  became  Prelatists  for  the  means 
of  grace.  They  ai)poar  then  (Sept.  26th,  1699)  to  have 
been  the  only  individuals  of  the  race  remaining  in  the 
colony.  With  what  results  Ayrault  represented  the  out- 
rage on  the  French  settlers  to  the  Governor  we  have  seen. 
For  them,  as  Presbyterian  settlers,  the  Congregationalist 
sects,  of  Anabaptists  and  Quakers,  as  well  as  the  others, 
had  no  sympathy — and  the  fruits  of  their  labors,  for  some 
thirteen  years,  in  "subduing  the  earth,"  were  abandoned  to 
their  oppressors.  Their  habitations,  humble  in  structure, 
which  had  been  dwellings  of  the  righteous,  in  which 
had  been  daily  heard  the  voice  of  joy  expressed  in  the 
melody  of  thanksgiving,  were  now  left  desolate,  and  their 
*'  little  sanctuary,"  which  had  on  Sabbaths  echoed  en  rime 
Francoise,  "the  word  of  Christ  in  the  book  of  Psalms," 
became  now  to  them  of  less  value  than  "a  lodge  in  a  gar- 
den of  cucumbers." 

The  only  further  vestiges  of  their  connection  with  the 
soil  of  Rhode  Island  is  thus  stated  by  Arnold  (vol.  ii.,  p. 
55).  About  "June  13th,  1715,  the  Yemassee  war  desola- 
ting South  Carolina  caused  many  of  the  planters  to  remove. 
Several  females,  whose  names  indicate  their  Huguenot 
origin,  fled  to  Rhode  Island,  bringing  with  them  a  few 


32  HISTORY    OF    PRKSBYTERIAXISM 

Indian  slaves.  These  ladies  petitioned  the  assembly  for 
relief  from  the  import  duty  upon  their  slaves,  which  was 
granted."  So  far,  for  Rhode  Island ;  we  now  turn  to 
Massachusetts. 

As  this  edict  was  not  revoked  till  October  24th,  "  few  or 
none  of  those  against  whom  it  was  directed  (says  S.  Drake) 
arrived  in  Boston  until  the  following  year.  Contributions 
on  their  behalf  were  made  in  Salem  in  September,  1686." 

With  those  who  came  to  this  colony  were  Mr.  Daniel 
Bondette,  Mr.  Laurie  and  Pierre  Daille,  ministers. 

Among  the  first  thirty  families  who  arrived  in  Boston  in 
1686,  was  Mr.  Daniel  Johonnette,  with  his  uncle,  Mr. 
Andrew  Sigourney,  from  Rochellc,  said  to  have  been 
with  Admiral  Coligny.  Of  those  who  arrived  in  1687 
was  Mr.  Baudouin,  progenitor  of  the  Bowdoin  family. 
He  fled  from  France  to  Ireland,  thence  he  removed  to 
Maine,  and  thence  to  Boston.  At  this  date  there  appear 
to  have  arrived  too  many  persons  of  this  class  for  conve- 
nient location  in  Boston,  and  to  improve  their  condition, 
not  a  few  of  them  removed  to  the  towns  of  Oxford  and 
Douglass,  Mass.  There,  their  minister  was  the  Rev.  Daniel 
Bondette. 

In  their  settlements  neither  the  native  forest,  the  sterility 
of  the  soil,  nor  the  ungenial  climate  compared  favorably 
with  their  native  land,  and  they  must  have  been  exten- 
sively ignorant  of  the  manner  in  which,  and  reluctant  to 
spend  the  labor  by  which,  the  earth  must  be  met  and  en- 
couraged to  yield  her  strength  for  their  comfortable  sub- 
sistence. Still  they  toiled  on  under  many  privations  until 
August  25th,  1696,  when,  by  an  incursion  of  Indians,  not  a 
few  of  them  w^ere  killed,  their  homes  destroyed  and  their 
settlements  broken  up.  The  survivors  removed  to  Boston, 
and  afterwards  aided  their  brethren  in  the  erection  and 
support  of  the  French  church  in  that  town.     (Barb.) 

There,  maintaining  their  Presbyterian  forms  of  church 
government,  worship  and  discipline  in  a  language  not 
generally  understood  by  the  Puritans,  who  had,  in  sympa- 
thy for  them  as  exiles  from  Papal  fury,  allowed  them  to 
occupy,  as  a  place  of  worship,  one  of  the  two  school-houses 
in  the' town,  not  silenced  by  civil  law — and  increased  by 
the  remnant  who  fled  for  life  a  second  time  from  similar 
instruments  of  desolation  and  death,  the  Huguenots  here 
for  a  season  prospered. 


IX   NEW   ENGLAND.  33 

Although  their  existence  was  in  so  far  viewed  as  an  in- 
trusion on  "  the  church  of  the  parish  "  in  the  school-house 
on  School  street,  one  or  more  of  their  ministers  preached 
for  many  years  regularly  to  them,  and  they  were  organized 
into  a  Presbyterian  church  by  the  election,  ordination  and 
installation  of  ruling  elders  and  the  settlement  of  a  pastor. 

What  became  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Bondette  and  Laurie 
is  not  ascertained,  and  whether  the  Rev.  Pierre  Daille  was 
their  first  minister  does  not  appear,  as  the  first  notice  of 
liim  as  the  pastor  of  the  French  church  in  Boston  is  found 
in  1696.  He  was  at  this  date  the  twentieth  minister  settled 
in  that  town. 

It  is  probable  that  he  had  then  officiated  there  for  sev- 
eral years,  and  he  continued  in  office  until  his  death.  He 
had  been  thrice  married,  and  was  represented  {Bost.  Notion^ 
p.  101)  as  "pious,  charitable,  courteous  and  correct  in 
life." 

As  a  glance  at  the  customs  of  "the  times  "  then,  and  a 
little  more  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  man,  I  detail 
an  account  of  his  will  and  burial.  In  his  will  Mr.  Daille 
prohibited  the  use  of  wine  at  his  funeral,  and  directed  that 
gloves  should  be  given  only  to  his  wife's  relatives.  To  the 
ministers  of  the  town  and  to  ^Mr.  Walter,  of  Roxbury,  he 
gave  gloves  and  scarves.  His  French  and  Latin  books  he 
gave  to  form  a  library  for  the  church  ;  for  the  benefit  of  the 
minister  the  interest  of  £100,  and  £10  to  be  put  at  interest 
till  a  meeting-house  should  be  erected,  "  if  one  ever  should 
be  built,"  and  then  that  sum  was  to  go  towards  its  erection. 
To  old  man  John  Rawlings,  the  French  school-master,  £5 ; 
to  loving  wife,  Martha  Daille,  £250,  my  negro  man,  Kiffy, 
and  also  all  my  plate,  clothes,  furniture,  etc.,  etc.  The  res- 
idue of  estate  to  "  loving  brother  Paul  Daille,  Vaugelade, 
in  Amsfort,  in  Holland.^'  "  Good  friend  Mr.  James  Bow- 
doin,  executor." 

It  was  dated  20th  April,  1715,  and  proved  on  May  31st, 
the  same  year.  Mr.  Daille  was  interred  near  the  centre  of 
the  Granary.  Burying  Ground,  opposite  to  Horticultural 
Hall,  Boston,  and  upon  the  headstone  or  his  grave  (which, 
D.  v.),  we  will  have  to  notice  one  hundred  and  forty-five 
years  afterward  (in  June,  1860),  is  this  inscription:  "  Here 
lies  ye  body  of  ye  Rev.  Mr.  Peter  Daille,  minister  of  the 
French  church  in  Boston.  Died  the  21st  of  May,  1715,  in 
3 


34  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  67th  year  of  his  age."  Near  him  is  the  grave  of  a  for- 
mer wife,  "  Seyre  Daille,  wife  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Daille,  aged 
about  60."  She  died  August  30th,  1712.  His  first  wife, 
Esther  Latonice,  died  14th  December,  1696.  {Drake, 
p.  488.)^ 

Notwithstanding  that  the  apphcation  made  by  "Mr. 
Toutonn  for  himself  and  other  expelled  Huguenots  to  the 
General  Court  to  inhabit  here  was  granted,"  and  that  they 
Avere  by  courtesy  allowed  to  worship  in  a  town  school- 
liouse,  still  "  the  iron  entered  into  their  souls  ;  "  they  had 
not  then,  as  Presbyterians,  liberty  of  conscience. 

Hoping  to  o]:)tain  a  permanent  settlement,  they,  on 
January  4th,  1704,*  purchased  a  lot  from  one  of  their  own 
people  for  a  church  site.  The  transfer  of  which,  as  stated 
on  Suffolk  Records,  Fol.  22,  pp.  102-3,  reads  thus  :  "  From 
James  Meares,  of  Boston,  hatter,  for  £110,  current  silver 
money  of  New  England,  to  John  Tartarien,  Francis  Bredon 
and  Jean  Depuis,  elders  of  the  French  church,  and  to  their 
successors  and  assigns  in  the  same  oflice  forever — in  the 
behalf  of  themselves  and  the  rest  of  the  congregation  of  the 
French  church  aforesaid,  the  lot  northerly  on  Schoolhouse 
Lane  43]  feet,  easterly  36  feet,  westerly  38  V  feet,  and  south- 
erly 35^  feet,  on  the  lands  of  Sarah  Bobbins,  to  build  a 
meeting-house  on  for  the  worship  and  service  of  Almighty 
God,  according  to  the  way  and  manner  of  the  Reformed 
Churches  of  France." 

Owing  to  the  individuality  of  Roger  Williams,  Massa- 
chusetts was  then  and  is  now  far  astern  of  Rhode  Island  in 
liberty  of  conscience. 

While  no  English-speaking  people  were  then  allowed  to 
sell  to  them  land  on  which  to  build  a  Presbyterian  church, 
they  manifested  their  submission  to  the  laws  and  petitioned 
the  select  men  of  the  town  for  liberty  to  erect  a  meeting- 
house (thirty-five  by  thirty  feet)  of  wood  upon  their  lot. 
But  this  prayer  was  refused  to  them  on  the  plea  that  "  the 
new  school-house  would  well  accommodate  them,  as  the 


*  In  this  year,  1704,  the  first  paper,  called  the  News  Letter,  was  pub- 
lished in  Boston  by  John  Campbell.  The  name  indicates  him  to  have 
been  a  Scotchman,  and  by  implication  a  Presbyterian,  and  if  so,  our 
modern  New  England  enterprise  was  then  dormant,  and  beaten  by  the 
tartan. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  85 

old  one  had  done  for  some  years  past,"  and  that  it  would 
accommodate  for  the  time  to  come  "a  far  greater  number 
of  persons  than  belonged  to  their  congregation." 

"  Freedom  to  worship  God "  like  those  moving  mys- 
teries, the  meridian  of  "no  variation,"  and  "the  star 
of  empire"  having,  above  eighty  years  since,  taken  its  way 
westward,  was  supposed  to  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  and 
to  have  perched  on  Plymouth  Rock,  yet  it  had  not  at  this 
date  arrived  so  far  west  as  Boston.  The  facts  that  they 
were  refugees,  and  that  they  conducted  their  religious  wor- 
ship in  an  unknown  tongue,  protected  them  from  scourg- 
ing and  cropping,  yet  it  took  twelve  years  (after  they  had 
purchased  and  paid  for  their  lot)  of  humble  supplication 
to  allow  them  to  erect  a  Presbyterian  church  on  the  soil  of 
Massachusetts. 

By  their  "  continued  coming  "  they  in  so  far  wearied  the 
select  men  and  innovated  on  the  established  religion  as  to 
obtain  liberty,  civil  and  religious,  to  carry  out  their  pray- 
ers and  purposes,  and  about  a.  d.  171G  a  brick  church 
thirty-five  by  thirty  feet,  was  erected.  From  and  after 
that  3^ear  Presbyterianism  liad  at  least  one  roof,  under 
which  it  found  "  a  place  of  habitation  for  the  mighty  God 
of  Jacob  "  in  the  province. 

Being  in  "fraternal  communion  with  the  church  in 
Geneva,"  their  Articles  of  Faith,  forty  in  number,  have  the 
clear  Calvinistic  ring.  Among  them  there  is  no  "ij"  sal- 
vation. 

A  "  form  of  sound  words,"  which  could,  under  Divine 
grace,  educate,  strengthen  and  sustain  these  "sons  and 
daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty  "  to  suffer  what  supersti- 
tion, bigotry  and  fanaticism  had  inflicted  upon  their  fore- 
fathers under  Charles  the  Ninth  of  France,  or  to  endure 
the  atrocious  scenes  of  horror,  cruelty  and  devastation 
which  they  had  witnessed  among  their  native  homes,  and 
which  had  inspired  them  with  an  endurance  which  made 
themselves  also  under  the  fiendish  cruelty  of  the  priest- 
hood during  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth  a  spectacle 
to  God,  angels  and  to  men,  such  a  creed  ought  to  be  per- 
petuated in  time,  as  it  will  be  "  in  spirit  and  in  truth  "  in 
eternity,  and  I  here  present  it  to  the  reader  as  an  appendix, 
translated  by  my  daughter,  the  late  Mrs.  Joseph  Stone. — 
Appendix  B. 


36  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Their  catechisms,  other  minor  "  forms  of  sound  words  " 
and  director}^  for  worship  are  all  written  on  the  same  key- 
note, while  the  Book  of  Psalms  exclusively,  "  Mis  en  rime 
Francoise,  par  Clement  Marot  et  Theodore  de  Beze,"  set 
with  musical  notes  to  every  line,  formed  the  matter  of 
their  praise  in  the  worship  of  God. 

Thus,  taking  to  themselves  ''the  sword  of  the  Spirit" 
and  the  whole  "armor  of  rifjhteoasness  on  the  right  hand 
and  on  the  left,"  they  passed  through  the  furnace  of  per- 
secution like  gold  of  the  seventh  refining.  Although  they 
were  "scattered  among  the  countries,"  they  now,  like  their 
brethren  formerly  in  Rhode  Island,  even  in  Massachusetts 
found  "a  little  sanctuary." 

This  "their  pious,  charitable  and  courteous"  Daille  was 
not  permitted  to  see,  but  in  1719  he  was  succeeded  by  the 
Rev.  Andrew  LeMercier,  a  graduate  of  Geneva,  who  was 
the  thirty -seventh  minister  settled  in  Boston.  His  eccle- 
siastical connection  will  be  subsequently  stated. 

He  continued  for  many  years  })astor  over  them  until, 
owing  to  the  death  of  the  aged  and  the  assimilation  of  the 
young  to  those  by  whom  they  were  surrounded,  the 
French  language  was  no  longer  by  them  exclusively  spoken. 

From  these  causes  the  society  became  too  much  dimin- 
ished for  self-support ;  the  church  was  broken  up,  and  on 
May  7th,  1748,  the  house  was  sold  for  £3,000  "  old  tenor." 

The  sale  was  made  by  Stephen  Botineau,  the  only  sur- 
viving elder,  the  Rev.  Andrew  LeMercier,  minister,  by 
Johonnots,  Arnault,  John  Brown,  James  Packenett,  Wm. 
Bowdoin,  and  Andrew  Sigourney,  proprietors  of  said 
church,  to  the  trustees  of  the  Rev.  Andrew  Croswell's  new 
Congregational  societ}^,  "  for  the  sole  use  of  a  Protestant 
church  forever."  Said  proprietors  only  conveyed  "  their 
right  and  interest  in  it."  The  house  stood  on  lots  No.  18, 
20,  and  22,  now  in  1881,  on  School  street. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  LeMercier,  while  pastor  in  Boston,  in 
1732  Avrote  and  published  a  history  of  his  native  city,  Ge- 
neva, presenting  it  under  its  three  forms  of  religion,  Pagan, 
Papal,  and  Protestant ;  a  copy  of  which  is  preserved  in 
the  library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  and  a 

synopsis  of  which  will  be  found  in  appendix  C. He, 

as  lately  as  a.  d.  1753,  styled  himself  "  pastor  of  the  French 
church."  He  was  "  a  gentleman  of  great  benevolence  and 
highly  respected." 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  37 

In  view  of  the  distressing  shipwrecks  which  happened 
on  the  "Island  Sables,"  he  in  1738  petitioned  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council  of  Nova  Scotia  "  for  the  property  "  of 
that  island,  that  he  might  stock  it  with  such  domestic 
animals  as  would  be  useful  in  preserving  alive  any  mari- 
ners who  might  escape  from  wrecks. 

His  petition  was  granted,  and  through  his  efforts  and 
perseverance,  the  lives  of  many  were  saved.  Yet  evil- 
disposed  fishermen  stole  his  cattle  and  his  goods ;  and  in 
1744  he  offered  through  the  Boston  newspapers  a  reward 
of  £40,  for  the  discovery  of  the  depredators.  He  contin- 
ued in  full  ecclesiastical  standing  with  his  Presbytery  un- 
til his  death,  which  occurred  about  the  end  of  March,  a.  d. 
1764,  at  Dorchester,  in  the  72d  year  of  his  age. 

Thus  ended  the  second  ihtroduction  of  Presbyterianism 
into  New  England,  and  although  with  its  extinction  the 
decay  and  change  of  their  language  had  much  to  do,  yet, 
why,  it  was  not  more  permanently  engrafted  upon  that, 
which  was  for  some  years  co-existent  with  it,  and  which 
immetliateh'  succeeded  it — in  other  words,  why  they  did 
not  perseveringly  retain  and  maintain  their  Presbyterian 
principles,  sealed  by  the  blood  of  a  martyred  ancestry — • 
does  not  quite  fully  appear.  To  Boston  and  the  whole 
region,  they  were  materially,  morally,  and  spiritually  an 
acquisition — not  "an  increase  of  sinful  men."  Yet,  by 
the  overshadowing  influences  of  the  Colonial  religion, 
these  Presbyterians  had  not  "freedom  to  worship  God," 
by  holding  and  enjoying  their  church  estate,  and  even 
when  Mr.  Croswell  was  to  have  been  installed,  on  October 
5th,  A.  D.  1748,  as  a  Congregationalist,  in  their  house 
which  his  people  had  bought,  his  settlement  was  delayed 
one  day,  by  a  sort  of  "  remonstrative  injunction  from  the 
Old  South  Society,"  as  "the  church  of  the  parish."  So 
rigid  and  exacting  was  the  ecclesiastical  law  of  their  quasi 
theocracy. 

The  fate  of  this  church,  as  well  as  of  the  one  in  Kings- 
ton, R.  I.,  was  astonishing.  It  was  bought  by  certain  oppo- 
nents of  the  Rev.  Geo.  Whitefield,  that  they  might  have  a 
pulpit  open  to  oppose  him,  as  it  would  seem  that  most 
of  the  then  existing  churches  of  Boston  aj^proved  of  his 
course.  After  the  death  of  Mr.  Croswell  in  a.  d.  1785,  the 
house,  strange  to  tell,  as  it  was  not  needed  by  Baptists, 


r 


88  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

nor  Episcopalians,  who  were  supplied,  nor  by  either  Metho- 
dists, Universalists,  nor  Unitarians,  who  had  not  yet  been 
fully  developed  in  Boston,  was  sold  in  violation  of  the 
deeds  both  of  1704  and  1748,  by  Trinitarian  Congregation- 
alists  to  the  Roman  Catholics.  The  mass,  which  was  made 
it  is  said  for  the  first  time  in  Boston,  on  Green  street,  and 
afterwards  on  Nov.  2d,  1788,  on  board  of  a  French  ship  in 
the  harbor,  had  now  a  domicile  on  the  soil  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  and  was  planted  by  an  ecclesiastical  successor  and 
probably  a  lineal  descendant  of  those  bloody  men,  who 
had  murdered  the  ancestry  of  these  Huguenots  in  their 
native  land,  a  priest  from  France,  "  the  Abbe  la  Poitre." 

Their  Presbyterian  property,  thus,  through  Congrega- 
tionalism, passed  to  the  use  of  Popery,  in  less  than  ninety 
years,  and  their  case  stands  probably  without  a  ])arallel  on 
the  page  of  history. 

Of  them,  we  see  nothing  left.  Their  limited  privileges 
in  New  England,  their  trials,  the  absorbing  of  their  dis- 
tinctive princi})les  by  the  ''  social  compact ''  as  a  govern- 
ment religion,  left  nothing  to  mark  their  existence  on  the 
sands  of  time  in  the  land  of  their  adoption,  but  the 
deeds  which,  twice  violated,  swell  the  records  of  Suffolk 
county  registry  ;  their  church  site,  now  dedicated  to  Mam- 
mon, and  those  acts  of  beneficence,  which  sprang  from 
their  Calvinistic  principles  and  which  will  be  conveyed  to 
posterity  by  such  erections  and  objects,  in  aid  of  civil  lib- 
erty and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men,  as  Fan- 
ueil  Hall  and  Bowdoin  college. 

Well  and  truthfully  is  it  said  by  S.  G.  Drake,  Esq. : 
(^  "Few  of  those  who  established  the  French  church  in  Bos- 
ton could  have  thought  that  a  branch  of  that  power,  from 
which  they  had  fled  their  native  land  upon  the  pain  of 
death,  would  so  soon  flourish  on  a  sjDot,  which  they  had 
chosen  for  a  place  of  refuge." 

How  strange,  that  these  children  of  persecution,  after 
having  escaped  for  their  lives  to  New  England,  should 
have  had  to  plead  year  by  year,  for  twelve  years,  under 
the  British  crown,  for  liberty  to  erect  on  the  soil  which 
they  had  lawfully  purchased  a  house  of  prayer ! 

How  astonishing  the  fact,  that  the  refusal  was  made  by 
those  whose  ecclesiastical  predecessors  one  century  and 
one-third  before,  had  braved  the  horrors  of  a  waste,  howl- 
ing wilderness  for  "  freedom  to  worship  God." 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  39 

They  did  not  say — you  are  "  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser 
sort,"  but,  being  of  the  Presbyterian  persuasion,  this  was 
"the  front  of  their  offending." 

Again,  how  passing  strange,  that  in  less  than  forty  years, 
their  "  little  sanctuary  "  should,  through  the  workings  of 
Congregationalism,  become  a  foothold  for  their  blood- 
thirsty persecutors;  and  the  first  spot  on  which  Papal  su- 
perstition should  permanently  adorn  the  soil  of  Massachu- 
setts with  a  mass  house!  The  French  Presbyterian 
church  in  New  England  as  an  instrumentality  had  fulfilled 
its  mission,  and  the  Master  was  now  by,  or  before  1753, 
pleased  t«  lay  it  away  until  the  day  of  final  reckoning. 


40  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 


CHAPTER  II. 

1718-1743 — Scotch  Irisli — Left  Home  for  Conscience  Sake — Puritans — 
Siege  of  Londonderry — Dissenter?; — An  open  Bible — Baldacliins — 
Grievances  set  forth — Craighead — Five  ship-loads  in  1718 — McGregor 
and  others — An  address  to  Governor  Sinite — Potatoes — Casco  Bay — 
Nutfield — First  Sermon  in  Londonderry — Echoes — First  Pastor — 
Ezekiel  xxxvii.  26 — Four  Schools — Worcester — Meeting-House 
hewed  down — Rev.  Wm.  Johnson — Tax — Presbyterian  Property 
Destroyed — Saybrook  Platform — A  Pres])ytery — Porpoodnc — A  case 
referred  to  the  Synod  in  Ireland  —  Folder's  Admission  of — Palmer — 
Dummer's  Indian  War — Boston — Moorehead — His  Peo})le  Poor — 
A  Vigorous  Tradition — John  Little — Ciiurch  Organized — Barn — 
Five  Elders — Miss  Parsons — A  Trust — A  Barn  Converted — "  Two 
Wings" — A  Pew — "Sundry  Disputes" — An  Award — A  Deed — A 
Compact — A  Second  Church  Built — Little's  Will — The  Londonderry 
Emigration  1718 — James  Doake — Aid  to  Clarke  in  ranstaning  his 
son  from  the  Indians — A  Collection  also  for  Wm.  M.,  who  lost  two 
cows  by  a  tree — Their  Code  of  Morals — Deai^i  of  Rev.  James  Mc- 
Gregor— How  he  went  to  Church— Zach  Walker — Three  Sermons  and 
two  Indians  on  one  Sabbath — Rev.  M.  Clarke,  a  Vegetarian  and  a 
"  Derry  Boy" — Pastor's  Salary  in  Deiry  £140,  (iovernor  of  Colony 
then  £100— Rev.  Thos. Thompson,  Installation  and  Death— "Tokens" 
— Tables — West  Parish — Rev.  D.  McGregor — Rev.  W.  Davidson — 
A  Strife — "Tenents" — The  Awakening — Results  in  Londonderry — 
Enthusiasm  —  Settlement's  —  Assimilated  —  Colonies  —  Parish  Tax — 
Hireling — Presbyterian  Ministers — Voluntown — Rev.  S.  Dorrance — 
Rev.  Jas.  Hillhouse,  he  split  the  Presbytery — Rev.  J.  Harvey  sus- 
pended, Moorehead  rebuked — Rev.  D.  McGregor's  (Jrdination — A 
Sorrowful  Spectacle — Rev.  R.  Rutlierford — Temple's  Colony — A 
Town  Sued  —  Colonies  —  Colonel  Dunbar's  CVlony  —  Waldo — The 
"Grand  Design" — A  Quarrel  for  two  years — Rev.  W.  McClenahan — 
Porpooduc — Early  decay  of  Presbyterianism  near  Casco  Bay — "The 
Oppressed  Irish  Brethren" — Xo  Synod — Johnston  and  Worcester — 
"The  Old  Garrison  House" — A  Problem  Solved — Distinct  Species — 
Chester — Two  Presbyterians  who  would  not  pay  the  Congregational 
Tax,  imprisoned — Rev.  John  Wilson — The  New  England  Primer — 
AVorship — Rouse — Ainsworth — Bay  State  Version — The  first  Printing 
Press — The  Imitations — Matter  of  Praise,  an  Index — A  quaint  title 
page — Mental  Instability — Edwards  had  lost  "conceit" — Radical 
Landmarks. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  41 

We  must  now  revert  to  that  division  of  Presbyterianism 
"  which  was  coexistent  with  the  French  Churcli  for  some 
years,  and  which  immediately  succeeded  it "'  in  New  Eng- 
land. This  was  introduced  by  the  Scotch  Irish  in  a.  d. 
1713. 

Before  entering  more  full}^  on  their  arrival  and  its  con- 
sequences, "  it  may  be  useful  to  advert  briefly  to  some  of 
the  circumstances  and  occurrences  in  their  native  land, 
wdiich  constituted  the  great  and  leading  cause  of  most  of 
their  New  England  settlements."  In  doing  this,  I  shall 
extensively  present  the  statements  of  the  late  Rev.  Edward 
L.  Parker,  in  his  history  of  the  town  of  Londonderry,  in 
New  Hampshire — a  work  of  great  interest,  connecting  with 
these  extracts  illustrative  matter  drawn  from  collateral 
sources. 

"  It  will  clearly  appear,  that  it  was  religious  principle 
which  brought  our  fathers  to  this  land ;  that  it  was  for 
conscience  sake  they  left  their  country  and  their  homes, 
and  'sought  a  faith's  pure  shrine'  upon  our  bleak  and 
unhospitable  shores." 

As  we  have  seen,  although  at  the  Reformation  Protes- 
tantism became  the  established  religion  in  England,  yet  it 
was  not  fully  clothed  in  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  the 
gospel,  while  it  was  by  law  enforced  with  such  rigor  that 
many,  rather  than  endure  it  and  conform,  preferred  self- 
banishment  and  voluntary  exile.  The  fires  of  Smithfield, 
which  had  raged  violently  during  the  days  of  "bloody 
IMary,"  had,  it  is  true,  been  quenched  by  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth,  "but  toleration  (it  has  been  justly  remarked) 
was  a  virtue  beyond  her  conception  and  beyond  her  age. 
She  left  no  example  of  it  to  her  successor,  James  the  First, 
and  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  sentiment  so  wise  or 
so  liberal  could  have  originated  with  him."  During  their 
reigns  acts  were  passed  requiring,  under  certain  penalties, 
that  all  should  adopt  the  established  religion  in  its  articles 
of  belief  and  modes  of  worship.  These  aroused  resistance 
l)oth  in  Scotland  and  in  England,  and  as  we  have  seen, 
those  who  resisted  the  invasion  of  their  rights  of  conscience 
were  called  "  Puritans." 

This  term,  designed  as  a  stigma,  deterred  all  but  those 
of  true  Christian  principle  from  uniting  with  them,  while 
they  on  whom   it   rested    gloried  in   it,   withstood    the 


42  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

encroachment  upon  their  rights,  and  demanded  greater 
simplicity  and  purity  of  worship  than  they  were  allowed 
in  the  Church  of  England.  Some  of  their  prominent  traits 
of  character  are  thus  presented  by  a  member  of  that  estab- 
lishment— Macaulay : 

"We  would  speak,"  says  he,  "of  the  Puritans  as  the 
most  remarkable  body  of  men  which  the  world  has  ever 
produced.  The  odious  parts  of  their  cliaracter  lie  on  the 
surface.  Nor  have  there  been  wanting  malicious  observers 
to  point  them  out.  For  many  years  after  the  Restoration 
they  were  the  theme  of  unmeasured  invective  and  derision. 
Most  of  their  absurdities  were  external  badges,  like  the 
signs  of  Freemasonry,  or  the  dresses  of  friars.  We  regret 
that  these  badges  were  not  more  attractive.  But  the  Puri- 
tans were  men  whose  minds  had  derived  a  peculiar  char- 
acter from  the  daily  contemplation  of  superior  beings  and 
of  eternal  interests. 

"  Not  content  with  acknowledging  in  general  an  over- 
ruling providence,  they  habitually  ascribed  every  event  to 
the  will  of  that  Great  Being,  for  whose  power  nothing  was 
too  vast,  for  whose  inspection  nothing  was  too  minute.  To 
know  him,  to  serve  him,  to  enjoy  him,  was  to  them  the 
great  end  of  human  existence.  They  rejected  with  con- 
tempt the  ceremonious  liomage  which  other  sects  substi- 
tuted for  the  ])ure  worship  of  the  soul.  Instead  of  catch- 
ing occasional  glim])ses  of  the  Deity  through  nn  obscuring 
veil,  they  aspired  to  gaze  full  on  the  intolerable  brightness, 
and  to  commune  with  him  face  to  face. 

"  Hence  originated  their  contempt  for  terrestrial  distinc- 
tions. They  recognized  no  title  to  superiority  but  the 
divine  favor,  and,  confident  of  tliat  favor,  they  despised 
all  the  accomplishments  and  all  the  dignities  of  the  world. 
If  they  were  unacquainted  with  the  works  of  philosopliers 
and  ])oets,  they  were  deeply  read  in  the  oracles  of  God. 
On  the  rich  and  eloquent,  on  nobles  and  })riests,  they 
looked  down  with  contempt,  for  they  esteemed  themselves 
ricli  in  a  more  precious  treasure,  and  eloquent  in  a  more 
sublime  language — nobles  by  right  of  earlier  creation,  and 
priests  by  the  imposition  of  a  mightier  hand.  Those  had 
little  reason  to  laugh  at  them  who  encountered  them  in 
the  hall  of  debate  or  in  the  field  of  battle. 

"  These  men  brought  to  civil  and  to  military  affairs  a 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  43 

coolness  of  judgment  and  an  immutability  of  purpose 
which  were  the  necessary  eflect  of  their  zeal.  The  inten- 
sity of  their  feelings  on  one  subject  made  them  tranquil 
on  every  other.  One  overpowering  sentiment  had  sub- 
jected to  itself  pity  and  hatred,  ambition  and  fear.  Death 
had  lost  its  terrors,  and  pleasure  its  charms.  They  had 
their  smiles  and  their  tears,  their  raptures  and  their  sor- 
rows, but  not  for  the  things  of  this  world.  They  had  their 
minds  cleared  of  every  vulgar  passion  and  prejudice,  and 
raised  above  the  influence  of  danger  and  corruption. 

"  Such  were  the  Puritans,  and  such  were  they  made  by 
their  religion.  Not  always  faultless,  and  their  logic  at 
times  unsound,  they  'fell  into  extravagances  occasionally — 
the  effect  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived  ;  yet,  in  the  excel- 
lence of  their  principles,  and  in  the  wisdom  and  result  of 
their  labors,  they  formed  a  noble  race  of  men,  superior  to 
the  ancestors  of  any  other  nation.'  To  this  class  belonged 
the  Scotch  Irish  Presbyterians.  t\.lthough,  as  we  have 
seen,  they  differed  from  'the  Pilgrims'  on  two  points,  and 
in  government  were  entirely  difl'erent  from  that  Congrega- 
tionalism which  sprang  uj)  in  the  colony,  still  (as  Calvin- 
ists),  in  their  other  views  of  divine  truth  and  religious 
duty,  in  zeal  and  firmness  to  resist  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
domination,  they  were  in  harmony  with  them,  and  were 
their  fellow-sufferers  for  conscience  sake. 

"'The  Scotch  Irish'  are  descendants  of  a  colon}^  who 
migrated  from  Argvleshire  in  Scotland  about  the  year 
16i2,  and  settled  in  the  Province  of  Ulster  in  Ireland.  In 
suppressiuL'  a  rebellion  of  his  Roman  Catholic  subjects  in 
that  Province,  two  millions  of  acres  of  land,  almost  the 
whole  of  the  six  northern  counties,  including  Londonderry, 
fell  to  the  king,  James  the  First.  By  liberal  grants  he 
encouraged  his  Scotch  and  English  subjects  to  leave  their 
h(5mes  and  settle  there,  as  an  increasing  power  to  awe  and 
control  the  natives.  This  fact  accounts  extensively  for  the 
enmity  with  which  the  natives  regard  the  Protestants,  and 
intensifies  their  sectarian  rancor — the  echo  of  which  is  still 
heard  in  '  Ireland  for  the  Irish.' 

"  In  this  animosity  the  great  Irish  rebellion,  thirty  years 
afterwards,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  First,  originiitfnl,  in 
which,  according  to  some  historians,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  persons  were  massacred.    The  settlers  of  1612 


44  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

received  accessions  in  succeeding  years,  and  near  the  end 
of  that  century  the  military  and  barbarous  executions  of 
Graham  of  Claverhouse,  in  the  reign  of  James  the  Second, 
in  Scothmd,  drove  many  more  thither.  These  Protestants 
were  during  the  time  of  Cromwell  and  for  a  few  years  sub- 
sequently protected  from  the  bitter  enmity  of  the  Papists ; 
but  they  had  afterwards  to  undergo  privations  and  suffer- 
ings almost  unparalleled. 

This  monarch,  supposing  that  he  could  subdue  the  con- 
sciences of  his  people  and  bring  them  again  under  papal 
superstition,  was  the  cause  of  the  siege  of  Londonderry, 

1689,  a  city  containing  then  about  ten  thousand  inhabi- 
tants. Just  as  his  soldiers  were  about  to  enter,  "the  'Pren- 
tice Boys,"  thirteen  in  number,  drew  up  the  bridge  and 
locked  "the  water  gate.  The  other  three  gates  were  soon 
securely  fastened. 

Famine,  bombshells  ^  and  destitution  scattered  death 
within,  while,  under  the  intrepid  Walker,  Puritans  (of  the 
stamp  above  described  by  Macaulay)  held  their  position 
for  one  hundred  and  three  days,  until  relief  arrived  from 
England.  In  the  course  of  the  night  the  Irish  army — hav- 
ing lost  eight  or  nine  thousand  men  and  one  hundred  of 
their  best  officers,  in  their  abortive  attempts  to  reduce  the 
city — ran  away.     Although  James,  during  the  summer  of 

1690,  received  supplies  from  France,  yet  he  was  soon  after 
defeated  by  the  Protestants  under  king  William  in  person 
on  the  banks  of  the  Boyne.  At  Aghrim,  the  next  year,  his 
army  was  again  completely  routed,  and  by  the  capitulation 
of  Limerick,  which  soon  followed,  his  last  stronghold  in 
Ireland  was  lost,  and  an  end  put  to  all  his  hopes  of  the 
recovery  of  his  crown. 

"The  protracted  siege  of  this  little  city  in  all  its  connec- 
tions and  consequences,  when  duly  considered,  will  com- 
pare favorably  Avith  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  as  a  stand 
made  in  the  cause  of  freedom.  And  yet,  important  as  it 
was,  how  few  comparatively  even  of  the  descendants  in  this 
country  of  the  brave  defenders  of  the  place,  who  had  even- 
tually to  subsist  on  dog-flesh,  cat-flesh,  rats,  mice,  tallow, 
salted  hides,  horse  blood,  etc.,  are  familiar  with  the  history 
of  that  event  upon  which  was  suspended  the  rich  inheri- 
tance which  they  have  received  from  their  fathers,  and 
which  they  are  to  transmit  to  future  generations!     So 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  45 

important  did  the  king  and  Parliament  consider  the  defence 
of  this  city,  and  so  highly  did  they  appreciate  the  valor, 
the  endurance  and  the  worth  of  its  defenders,  that,  in  addi- 
tion to  certain  grants,  an  act  was  passed  exempting  from 
taxation  throughout  the  British  dominions  all  who  had 
borne  arms  in  the  city  during  the  siege." 

Such  tried  spirits  when  they  emigrated  to  America,  sucli 
lovers  of  Christian  liberty,  were  well  prepared  to  encounter 
the  hardships  and  endure  the  trials  of  forming  new  settle- 
ments. We  here  also  see  the  result  of  the  labors,  in  com- 
mon with  others,  of  Blair  and  Livingstone,  who  were  provi- 
dentially hindered  in  1636  from  coming  on  the  "  Eagle's 
Wing  "  to  the  Merrimac.  The  grandchildren  of  their 
hearers  and  people  in  due  time  fulfilled  the  mission  which 
they  and  their  one  hundred  and  forty  fellow-passengers 
had  attempted  in  vain. 

Notwithstanding  their  firm  allegiance  to  the  crown,  the 
Irish  Presbyterians  found  themselves  after  the  downfall 
and  departure  of  James  to  France,  in  unpleasant  circum- 
stances, which  continued  under  William  the  Third,  Queen 
Ann  and  George  the  First. 

They  were  dissenters  from  the  Church  of  England,  and 
had  to  experience  many  embarrassments.  "  They  were 
indeed  permitted  to  maintain  their  own  forms  of  worship 
unmolested ;  still,  they  were  compelled  to  aid  in  support- 
ing a  minister  of  the  established  religion — and  a  tenth  part 
of  all  their  increase  was  rigorously  exacted  for  this  purpose. 
They  also  held  their  lands  and  tenements  by  lease  from  the 
crown,  and  not  as  proprietors  of  the  soil.  With  an  inex- 
tinguishable thirst  for  liberty,  they  could  not  bear  to  be 
thus  trammelled  in  their  civil  and  religious  rights."  They 
were  surrounded  by  the  native  Irish,  and '' on  the  same 
soil  (says  Macaulay)  dwelt  two  populations  locally  inter- 
mixed, morally  and  politically  sundered.  The  difference 
of  religion  was  by  no  means  the  only  difference,  and  was 
not  perhaps  even  the  chief  difference  which  existed  be- 
tween them.  They  sprang  from  different  stocks.  They 
spoke  different  languages.  They  had  different  national 
characters,  as  strongly  opposed  as  any  two  nations  in 
Europe.  They  were  in  widely  different  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion. There  could,  therefore,  be  little  sympathy  between 
them ;  and  centuries  of  calamitiQ3  and  wrongs  had  gener- 
ated a  strong  antipathy." 


46  HISTORY   OF    PRESBYTERIANISM 

"  The  appellation  of  Irish  was  then  given  to  the  Celts 
and  to  those  families  which,  though  not  of  Celtic  origin, 
had  in  the  course  of  ages  degenerated  into  Celtic  manners. 
These  people,  probably  somewhat  under  a  million  in  num- 
ber, had  with  few  exceptions  adhered  to  the  Church  of 
Rome.  Among  tliem  resided  about  two  hundred  thousand 
colonists,  proud  of  their  Saxon  blood  and  of  their  Protes- 
tant faith. 

"The  great  superiorit}"  in  intelligence,  vigor  and  organi- 
zation of  the  minority  over  the  others  more  than  compen- 
sated for  their  excess  in  numbers." 

The  one  people  had  an  open  Bible  and  faithful  ex- 
pounders of  its  truth — the  otlier,  their  holy  water,  organs, 
baldachins,  beads  and  crucifixes.  Mental  nourishment, 
so  varied,  necessarily  produced  lives,  manners  and  influ- 
ences of  a  totally  different  nature.  It  was  in  view  of  these 
associations,  embarrassments  and  evils  experienced  in  their 
native  land,  that  emigrants  to  America,  and  especially  the 
first  colony  of  Presbyterians  who  came  to  New  England, 
were  disposed  to  leave  their  homes  and  the  many  comforts 
there  enjoyed,  for  an  untried  region  and  the  labors  and 
sufferings  incident  to  a  settlement  in  a  new  country. 

"  In  the  sixth  year  of  George  the  First,  in  1719,  the  Par- 
liament of  Ireland  passed  an  Act  of  Toleration  (so  called), 
under  which  dissenters  must  subscribe  the  doctrinal  Arti- 
cles of  the  Church  of  England.  This  the  Irish  Presby- 
terians would  not  accept."     (  Web.,  p.  96.) 

Beside  this,  "  they  were  charged  with  persecuting  their 
Episcopal  countrymen,  forced  to  submit  to  the  '  sacramental 
test,'  blamed  with  perverting  the  royal  bounty  from  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  designed,  and  were  accused  of 
uniting  with  'the  disgusted  party'  of  the  Establislied 
Church,  and  with  Deists,  Socinians  and  all  other  enemies 
of  revealed  religion,  and  even  with  the  Papists  themselves, 
in  order  to  destroy  the  constitution  of  the  kingdom."  For 
these  false  charges  they  sought  redress. 

In  November,  1713,  three  Presbyterian  ministers,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  of  Belfast,  the  Rev.  John  Abernethy, 
of  Antrim,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Iredell,  of  Dublin,  laid  before 
the  Lord-Lieutenant  "  a  representation  of  the  state  of  their 
church,  setting  forth  the  grievances  under  which  ministers 
and  people  were  still  suffering,  and  they  state  how  discour- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  47 

aged  they  were  by  the  frequent  disappointment  of  their 
hopes  of  relief;  and  they  assure  his  grace  that  '  the  melan- 
choly apprehensions  of  these  things  have  put  several  of  us 
upon  the  thoughts  of  transplanting  ourselves  into  America, 
that  we  may  there  in  a  wilderness,  enjoy,  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  that  ease  and  quiet  to  our  consciences,  persons  and 
families  which  is  denied  us  in  our  native  country.' '' 
{JReid,  vol.  iii.,  p.  95.) 

Although  after  the  accession  of  George  the  First  to  the 
throne  in  1714.  some  of  their  grievances  were  removed,  yet 
previously  their  position  was  uncomfortable,  for  in  itlo 
"the  oppressed  brethren  from  the  north  of  Ireland  "  (as 
Mather  calls  them)  began  to  emigrate  to  New  England. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Craighead,  who  came  among  the  first 
ministers  thus  self-banished,  arrived  in  1715.  His  piety 
was  highly  commended  by  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather,  yet  his 
views  of  ecclesiastical  polity  did  not  coincide  with  the  es- 
tablished religion  of  the  colony,  even  while  the  purity  of 
Puritanism  was  untarnished.  He  remained  in  New  Eng- 
land about  eight  years.  He  was  employed  in  the  ministry 
at  Freetown  (or  Assonet),  Bristol  county,  ^lass.,  and  in 
1723  he  went  to  the  Jerseys.  He  was  afterwards  for  sev- 
eral years  pastor  at  Pequea,  in  Pennsylvania.  The  Presby- 
terians of  that  colony  requested  him  to  write  to  Presbyte- 
rians landing  in  New  England,  and  he  accordingly  wrote 
to  the  Rev.  John  McKinstry  and  the  Rev.  John  Campbell, 
urging  them  to  remove  to  his  vicinity.  In  their  cases  he 
was  not  successful.  They  died  in  the  service  of  Congrega- 
tionahsm.  He  also,  in  1736,  wrote  to  the  Rev.  John 
Moorehead  and  his  congregation  in  the  name  of  the  Synod 
(1F(?6.),  urging  them  on  the  suspension  of  their  pastor  to 
unite  with  them,  but  neither  dependence  nor  control  re- 
sulted from  his  solicitations.  No  connection  was  ever 
formed  between  the  Boston  congregation  and  that  Synod. 
Soon  after  being  installed  pastor  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Hopewell,  now  Big  Spring,  he  died  in  1739. 

No  associated,  nor  considerable  number  of  this  people 
appear  to  have  come  to  New  England  before  1718,  when 
five  shiploads,  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  families, 
arrived  in  Boston  on  August  4th,  in  that  year.  , 

A  young  man,  a  son  of  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  called 
Holmes,  had  visited  New  England,  and  of  it  had  taken  to 


48  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Ireland  a  very  favorable  account.  Consequently  his  father 
and  three  other  Presbyterian  ministers,  James  McGregor, 
William  Cornwell  and  William  Boyd,  with  a  portion 
of  their  respective  congregations,  determined  on  a  removal 
"to  these  colonies.  To  prepare  the  way  and  secure  a  recep- 
tion, they  early  in  the  year  1718  sent  the  Rev.  Mr.  Boyd 
with  an  address  to  Governor  Shute  of  Massachusetts, 
expressing  a  strong  desire  to  remove  to  New  England 
if  he  should  afford  to  them  suitable  encouragement. 

They  also  employed  Mr.  Boyd  to  make  all  the  necessary 
arrangements  with  the  civil  authority  for  their  reception. 
This  "address,  concise  and  appropriate,  is  signed  by  two 
hundred  and  seventeen  persons.  Nine  of  them  were  min- 
isters of  the  gospel,  three  of  the  others  were  graduates  at 
the  University  in  Scotland,  and  all  but  seven  (who  made 
their  marks)  subscribed  their  names.  This  fact  shows  that 
they  were  superior  to  the  common  class  of  emigrants. 
^Ir.*^  Boyd  received  from  the  Governor  the  desired  encour- 
agement, and  so  soon  as  his  friends  in  Ireland  were  thus 
informed  by  him,  they  converted  their  property  into 
money,  and  embarked  in  five  ships  for  Boston. 

Their  motives  for  colonization  and  removal  we  gather 
not  only  from  the  facts  above  stated,  but  also  from  a  manu- 
script sermon  of  the  Rev.  James  McGregor,  one  of  the  four 
pastors  who  accompanied  their  flocks  to  America.  It  was 
addressed  to  them  on  the  eve  of  their  embarking,  from 
those  very  appropriate  words  of  Moses  when  conducting 
the  chosen  tribes  to  the  promised  land  :  "  If  thy  presence 
go  not  with  me,  carry  us  not  up  hence."  In  the  applica- 
tion of  the  subject  to  their  emigration,  he  states  the  follow- 
ing as  reasons  of  removal  to  America : 

1.  To  avoir]  oppression  and  cruel  bondage. 

2.  To  shun  persecution  and  designed  ruin. 

3.  To  withdraw  from  the  communion  of  idolators. 

4.  To  have  an  opportunity  of  worshipping  God  according 
to  the  dictates  of  conscience  and  the  rules  of  his  inspired 
word. 

The  first  minister  of  Aghadoey  (supposed  to  be  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Boyd)  was  deposed  in  16G1  for  non-conformity, 
but  continued  to  minister  to  the  people  for  years.  He  re- 
tired to  Derry,  and  remained  in  the  city  all  the  time  of  the 
siege,  and  he  died  in  that  charge  in  1699.     He  was  sue- 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  49 

ceeded  by  the  Rev.  James  McGregor,  who  was  ordained  in 
Aghadoey  on  June  27th,  1701.  In  1718  he  resigned  the 
charge  and  came  to  America. 

Sixteen  famiHes  of  these  emigrants  left  Boston  and  went 
to  Casco  Bay,  now  Portland,  in  Maine,  to  found  a  settle- 
ment. They  arrived  there  late  in  autumn.  Many  of  the 
families  had  to  remain  on  the  ship  all  winter,  and  they 
suffered  much. 

Before  going  in  spring  to  select  their  territory,  to  which 
they  had  been  directed  by  Governor  Shute,  as  they  disem- 
barked (according  to  tradition),  they  united  in  acts  of  re- 
ligious worship,  devoutlv  acknowledging  the  Divine  good- 
ness in  preserving  them  from  the  dangers  of  the  sea  and 
during  the  unusually  severe  winter.  No  one  of  their  num- 
ber had  suffered  by  sickness  or  was  removed  by  death. 
Standing  on  the  shore  of  the  ocean  which  separated  them 
from  their  native  land,  they  offered  their  devout  praises  in 
that  "  most  touching  of  all  songs,"  the  137th  psalm  in  the 
Presbyterian  metrical  version : 

"  By  Babel's  streams  we  sat  and  wept 
When  Zion  we  thought  on." 

"  Oil,  how  the  Lord's  song  shall  we  sing, 
Within  a  foreign  land  ! 
If  thee,  Jerusalem,  I  forget, 

Skill  part  from  my  right  hand." 

Although  the  arrival  of  the  ships  at  Boston  on  August 
4th,  1718,  was  duly  noticed,  yet  not  a  favorable  word  is 
said  of  the  jDassengers.  They  were  called  "a  parcel  of 
Irish." 

Nay,  the  stor}^  is  more  than  tradition,  that  they  were 
not  favorably  received  b}'  the  inhabitants.  They  were  not 
pelted  with  rotten  potatoes  on  leaving  the  wharf,  for  there 
were  none  in  New  England  until  they  then  brought  them, 
but  with  other  missiles. 

They  were  Irish  and  not  English ;  and  although  they, 
as  Presbyterians,  escaped  better  than  the  Quakers  and 
Anabaptists,  who  preceded  them,  had  done,  yet  their  pres- 
ence was  not  agreeable  to  those  who  had  hitherto  dwelt  so 
nearly  alone,  under  the  union  of  the  government  of  the 
colony  with  their  ^peculiar  ecclesiastical  regimen,  which 
4 


50  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

"  had  taken  its  rise  in  New  England."  Consequently,  they 
generally  went  to  the  interior,  to  the  wilderness,  and  less 
cultivated  parts  of  the  country,  while  individuals  of  them, 
by  indemnifying,  obtained  a  residence  in  Boston  and  other 
prosperous  towns. 

As  we  have  seen,  a  part  of  them  went  to  Casco  Bay. 
They  were  informed  by  Governor  Shute,  that  there  was 
good  land  in  that  vicinity  which  they  might  have.  This 
was  to  them  pleasant  intelligence,  as  they  desired  to  carry 
into  effect,  as  a  community,  their  particular  design  and 
secure  the  enjoyment  of  religious  ordinances  under  the 
ministry  of  their  favorite  teacher,  the  Rev.  James  Mc- 
Gregor. In  the  meantime  he,  with  the  remaining  families, 
retired  from  Boston  into  the  country ;  some  to  Andover, 
others  to  Dracut,  until  a  suitable  tract  of  land  for  perma- 
nent settlement  should  be  found. 

On  the  opening  of  spring,  they  commenced  an  examina- 
tion of  their  territory  in  the  wilderness.  After  having  ex- 
plored the  country  for  some  distance  eastward  from  Casco 
Bay,  finding  no  tract  that  pleased  them,  they  returned, 
went  westward  and  ascended  the  Merrimac  to  Haverhill, 
where  they  arrived  on  the  2d  of  April,  old  style. 

While  at  Haverhill  they  heard  of  a  fine  tract  of  land, 
about  fifteen  miles  distant,  called  Nutfield,  on  account  of 
the  abundance  of  the  chestnut,  butternut  and  walnut 
trees,  which  grew  in  its  forests. 

Leaving  their  families  at  Haverhill,  the  men  examined 
the  tract,  and,  ascertaining  that  it  was  not  appropriated, 
they  at  once  decided  to  here  take  up  their  grant,  which 
they  had  obtained  from  Governor  Shute,  of  a  township 
twelve  miles  square. 

Having  selected  the  spot  on  which  to  commence  their 
settlement,  and  having  built  a  few  temporary  huts,  which 
they  left  in  charge  of  two  or  three  of  their  number,  they 
brought  from  Haverhill  their  families,  provisions,  imple- 
ments of  labor,  and  what  little  household  furniture  they 
could  collect.  A  part  returned  by  way  of  Dracut,  where 
Mr.  McG;regor  had  spent  the  winter  in  teaching,  that  they 
might  bring  him  with  them.  As  tradition  says,  tlie  two 
parties  arrived  about  the  same  time,  April  11th,  old  stvle, 
1719. 

Mr.  McGregor  made  to  them  an  impressive  address  on 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  51 

the  spot  so  happily  selected,  congratulating  them  on  the 
propitious  termination  of  their  wanderings,  their  signal 
preservation  as  a  company  while  crossing  the  ocean,  and 
since  their  arrival  in  this  country,  and  exhorted  them  to 
continued  confidence  in  God,  planted  as  they  now  were 
in  the  wilderness,  and  "strangers  in  a  strange  land."  On 
April  r2th,  under  a  large  oak,  he  preached  to  them  (from 
Is.  xxxii.  2)  his  first  sermon  in  the  town.  Then,  for  the 
first  time,  did  that  wilderness  and  solitary  place,  over 
which  savage  trihes  had  for  centuries  roamed,  resound 
with  the  voice  of  praise  and  prayer,  and  echo  to  the  sound 
of  the  gospel.  The  spot  and  tree  were  long  after  regarded 
"vvith  a  degree  of  reverence,  but  in  the  last  one-third  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  veneration  for  a  Calvinistic  ancestry, 
their  monuments,  hopes  and  prospects,  is  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  a  lost  virtue.  Their  rude  dwellings  were  erected  on 
the  two  banks  of  Westrunning  brook,  called  "  the  common 
field,"  and  stood  thirty  rods  apart.  When  the  intervening 
forests  had  been  (as  they  soon  were)  cut  down,  in  summer 
evenings  "  the  voice  of  rejoicing  and  salvation  "  was  heard 
ascending  from  these  "tabernacles  of  the  righteous,"  and 
few  scenes  this  side  of  heaven  could  be  found  more  touch- 
ing than  the  echoes  of  the  surrounding  forests  to  the  voices 
of  these  devout  worshippers,  as  they  lifted  up  their  even- 
ing songs  to  their  Father  in  heaven,  usually  about  the 
same  hour,  sometimes  in  the  same  tunes,  "  Dundee's  wild 
Warblings,"  or  "  Plaintive  Martyrs,"  Coleshill,  or,  the  Old 
Hundred.     Up  or  down  the  stream,  it  was  the  same. 

They  did  not  delay  in  securing  the  means  of  grace,  and 
as  soon  as  it  could  be  done  in  order,  they  called  the  Rev. 
James  McGregor  to  be  their  pastor.  They  had  to  submit 
to  some  informalities,  as  there  as  3^et  existed  no  Presbytery 
of  the  bounds,  from  whom  they  could  ask  the  moderation 
of  a  call.  This  was  not  absolutely  necessary,  for  Mr.  Mc- 
Gregor had  been  ordained  in  a.  d.  1701,  and  some  of  the 
families  had  formed  a  part  of  his  pastoral  charge  in  Ire- 
land. "Accordingly,  on  a  day  appointed  for  the  purpose, 
the  people  having  assembled,  he,  in  connection  with  ap- 
propriate religious  services,  solemnly  assumed  the  pastoral 
charge  of  the  church  and  congregation ;  and  they,  with 
like  solemnity  and  by  a  formal  act,  received  him  as  their 
pastor  and  spiritual  guide.     He  preached  to  them  on  the 


52  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

occasion  from  Ezekiel  xxxvii.  26.  To  the  infant  settle- 
ment these  were  appropriate,  and  for  generations,  pro- 
phetic words.  Having  shown  that  it  is  the  Lord  who 
places  a  people  in  a  land,  multiplies  them  therein,  and 
affords  to  them  the  ordinances  of  religion,  he  reminded 
his  brethren  that  '  they  should  devoutly  acknowledge  the 
providence  of  God  in  all  past  changes,  particularly  in  their 
emigration  to  this  new  world ;  that  they  should  live  by 
faith  in  what  was  before  them ;  fervently  pray  that  God 
would  continue  to  bless  them ;  be  firmly  united  with  one 
another  ;  walk  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  keep  his  charge.'  " 

These  discourses  show  that  their  removal  and  settle- 
ment was  from  religious  principle,  and  in  reliance  on  the 
divine  guidance  and  protection.  God  in  his  providence 
multiplied  them,  so  that  from  this  settlement  many  others 
were  early  formed,  even  in  some  towns  where  they  met 
with  legislative  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  opposition. 

Having  thus  the  opportunity  of  dwelling  alone  in  their 
town,  which  was  incorporated  in  June,  1722,  of  controlling 
its  civil  matters,  and  favored  from  the  first  with  moral 
and  religious  institutions,  they  soon  became  a  thriving, 
prosperous  and  respectable  community.  In  1723  they 
built  a  house  for  their  minister,  and,  in  the  next  year,  a 
meeting-house.  In  six  years  they  had  four  schools  in 
town — kept,  each  of  them,  for  one-half  of  each  year — and 
within  nine  years  of  its  first  settlement,  Londonderry  paid 
one-fifteenth  of  the  State  tax. 

It  was  not  only  a  place  of  rest  to  which  not  a  few  of 
their  countrymen  resorted,  but  it  soon  became  a  nursery, 
from  which  several  other  towns  were  formed. 

Instead,  however,  of  tracing  the  organization  and  estab- 
lishment of  churches  in  those  towns,  which  principally,  or, 
in  part,  obtained  their  population  from  this  maternal  one, 
thus  civilly  and  religiously,  so  favorably  situated,  we  now 
chronologicall}''  direct  our  attention  to  sketches  of  the  his- 
tory of  other  portions  of  "  the  oppressed  brethren  from  the 
north  of  Ireland." 

I  begin  with  those  who  sought  a  home  in  Worcester, 
Massachusetts.  "This  town  (savs  Wm.  Lincoln,  Esq., 
Hist.  Wor.,  pp.  47,  48,  191,  194,  Ed.  1837)  shared  liberally 
in  an  accession  to  the  population  by  a  colony  of  Scots,  in 
the  early  years  of  the  last  century.     Loaded  (in  Ireland) 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  53 

with  the  tythes  of  the  harvest,  and  with  lands  held  by 
tenancy  under  exorbitant  rents,  they  embarked  for  a  coun- 
try, where  "  (they  supposed)  "  religious  freedom  was  united 
with  civil  liberty,  and  neither  tything-man  nor  tax-gath- 
erer had  oppressive  jurisdiction.  A  company  of  them  ar- 
rived in  1719,  and  it  is  said  they  were  accompanied  b}^  the 
Rev.  Edward  Fitzgerald  from  Londonderry,  who  preached 
to  them  for  some  time  in  the  old  garrison  house.  They 
sufiered  illiberal  opposition  and  even  active  hostility. 

"  Having  formed  a  religious  society,  they  commenced 
the  erection  of  a  meeting-house  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Boston  road,  north  of  the  house  of  Frederic  W.  Paine, 
Esq.  The  material  had  been  procured,  the  frame  had  been 
raised,  and  the  building  was  fast  in  progress  of  construc- 
tion, when  the  inhabitants  gathered  tumultuously  by 
night,  hewed  down  and  demolished  the  structure.  Per- 
sons of  consideration  and  respectability  aided  in  the  riot- 
ous work  of  violence,  and  the  defenceless  foreigners  were 
compelled  to  submit  to  the  wrong. 

"  The  riotous  act  was  sustained  by  the  intolerant  spirit 
of  the  day,  and  the  injured  foreigners  were  compelled  to 
mourn  in  silence  over  the  ruins  of  their  altar,  profaned  by 
the  hand  of  violence." 

In  our  boasted  "  light  of  the  nineteenth  century  "  to 
many,  such  violence  by  a  devout  people  making  a  high 
profession  of  godliness,  will  appear  almost  incredible,  but 
it  was  even  so. 

"  The  strangers  were  not  treated  with  common  decency 
by  their  English  neighbors,"  whose  fears  were  excited  lest 
they  should  outnumber  them  in  town-meeting  and  com- 
pel them  to  support  a  Presbyterian  minister.  "  Let  us 
deal  wisely  with  them,  lest  they  multiply  and  they  become 
more  and  mightier  than  we,"  was  the  language  of  the  new 
king  over  Egypt,  that  knew  not  Joseph.  And  the  same 
principle,  the  fear  of  the  loss  of  civil  power,  then  actuated 
those,  who,  as  yet,  controlled  the  compulsory  support  of 
the  gospel  in  this  town.  "  Little  care  was  taken  (says  Mr. 
Lincoln)  to  preserve  the  memorials  of  this  unoffending, 
but  persecuted  people,  whose  history  discloses  only  the 
injustice  and  intolerance  of  our  ancestors.  Few  facts  can 
now  be  ascertained  of  their  struggles  with  the  prejudices 
and  hostility,  which  finally  drove  them  away  to  seek  an 


54  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

asylum  in  other  colonies.  Tlie  number  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian communicants  is  said  to  have  been  nearly  equal  to 
those  of  the  Congregational  Church,  and  the  Presbyterian 
clergyman  was  once  invited  to  occupy  the  vacant  puljHt, 
but  the  request  was  not  repeated."     ( P.  192.) 

How  long  the  Rev.  ^Ir.  P'itzgerald  labored  among  them 
is  uncertain,  but  it  w^as  not  })robably  long,  as  he  (says  Mr. 
Lincoln)  "  removed  for  want  of  maintenance,  and  left 
A\'orcester  before  the  settlement  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Burr,"  on 
October  13th,  1725.*  ''At  his  settlement,  it  was  under- 
stood, that  if  the  Presbyterians  would  aid  voluntarily  in 
his  support,  they  should  be  permitted  to  })lace  in  the 
pulpit,  occasionally,  teachers  of  their  own  denomination; 
and  the  foreigners  united  with  the  other  inhabitants." 

After  some  time,  they  found  that  their  expectations  would 
not  be  realized. 

They  then  withdrew,  and  the  Rev.  Wm.  Johnston  was 
installed  as  their  minister. 

This  took  place  some  time  near  1736.  When,  from  the 
loss  of  the  records  of  Presley tery,  does  not  appear. 

Being  compelled  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  INIr. 
Burr,  an  a])peal  was  made  to  the  justice  of  their  fellow -towns- 
men in  1736-7  by  the  Presbyterians  for  relief  from  a  tax 
inconsistent  with  their  religious  privileges,  as  British 
subjects,  but  without  avail.  The  Congregational  oppo- 
nents, in  their  answer,  said  that  "the  ordination  of 
Mr.  Johnston  was  disorderly.  The  recorded  answer  to 
their  ai)plication  furnishes  a  curious  specimen  of  mingled 
subtlety  and  illiberality.  "  (P.  193.)  We  insert  it,  as  a 
fact  from  which  the  reader  can  make  his  own  deductions. 

"  In  1736-7,  the  Scotch  Presbyterians,  ten  persons,  resi- 
dents, prayed  to  be  relieved  from  supporting  Mr.  Burr,  as 
they  had  settled  the  Rev.  Wm.  Johnston.  Their  petition 
was  refused  as  unreasonable,"  for  1st.  It  does  not  appear 
from  their  names  wdio  they  are,  and  it  would  be  too  much 
at  random  to  do  so. 

2dly.  It  does  not  appear  that  they  are  actuated  by  just 
principles  of  conscience,  as  should  necessitate  their  forsak- 
ing us.     We  hold  to  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith, 

■^In  1726  there  was  due  by  the  town  "to  the  Eev.  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
i£2."     (Town  Kecords.) 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  55 

which,  they  say,  they  promised  to  adhere  to.  We  do  not 
substantially  differ  from  the  divines  at  Westminster  as  to 
the  worship,  discipline  and  government*  of  the  church. 
They  may  enjoy  their  way,  which  they  call  Presbyterian- 
ism,  with  us  and  their  consciences  not  be  imposed  upon  in 
anything.  A  number  of  those  now  withdrawing  were 
jointly  concerned  in  settling  Mr.  Burr  and  in  our  fellow- 
ship. We  know  not  why  thej^  should  not  continue  with 
us. 

3dly.  We  look  on  the  matter  as  disorderly,  not  to  men- 
tion that  the  ordination  of  their  minister  they  speak  of 
Avas  disorderly  even  with  respect  to  the  principles  by 
which  they  pretend  to  act  by,  as  well  as  with  us,  up  to  whom 
they  stand  related,  and  they  enjoy  with  us  all  proper 
social,  Christian,  and  civil  rights.  Their  separating  from 
us  being  contrary  to  the  publick  establishment  and  laws 
of  this  province  and  contrary  to  their  own  covenant  with 
us,  and  also  very  unreasonably  weakening  to  the  town, 
whose  numbers  and  dimensions,  the  north  part,  being  ex- 
empted by  the  vote  of  the  town  from  paying  to  Mr.  Burr, 
will  not  admit  of  the  honorable  support  of  two  ministers 
of  the  gospel,  and  tending  to  breed  division,  destructive  of 
our  peace,  and  upon  which  and  other  accounts,  the  town 
refuse  to  comply  with  the  request  of  dismissing  said  peti- 
tioners."    {Tou-ii  Records.) 

"Many  unable  to  endure  the  insults  and  bitter  preju- 
dices they  encountered,  removed  to  Otsego  county,  N.  Y. ; 
others  joined  their  brethren  of  the  same  denomination, 
who  had  now  commenced  the  settlement  of  the  town  of 
Pelham,  jNIass.,  and  were  some  years  afterward  under  the 
pastoral  care  of  the  Rev.  Ralph  Abercrombie." 

"About  thirty  "  (it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln does  not  say  which,  persons,  or  families)  "remained 
in  Worcester  after  the  dispersion  of  the  rest."t  Their  pas- 
tor, the  Rev.  Wm.  Johnston,  was  settled  in  Windham,  N.  H., 
early  in  1747.     "  Their  settlements  in  other  places  were  ap- 


*As  to  "government,"  this  is  simply  untrue. 

fTlie  ancestry  of  the  Blairs  of  political  fame  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
and  in  Missouri,  as  well  as  of  those  in  Truro,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Boston, 
after  the  middle  of  the  19th  century,  were  buried  in  Worcester  before 
the  dispersion. 


66  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

proached  by  bodies  of  armed  men,  and  their  property  in 
some  instances  wantonly  destroyed."  "They  were  every- 
where abused  and  misrepresented  as  Irish/'     (P.  48.)* 

To  remove  this  odium,  they  petitioned  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  to  call  them  Scots,  yet  their  relig- 
ion contributed  much  more  to  produce  and  vivify  it  than 
did  their  race  and  nation. 

The  germ  of  all  the  opposition  shewn  to  them  was 
in  their  scriptural  form  of  church  government.  If  they 
had,  like  the  Scotch,  who  were  brought  over  in  a.  d.  1652, 
made  (so  far  as  now  appears)  no  efforts  to  organize  Pres- 
byterian churches,  but  melted  away  religiously  into  the 
common  mass,  this  odium  would  have  been  soon  lost  by  in- 
termarriages and  the  influences  of  the  other  social  relations. 
The  General  court,  never  surcharged  with  love  to  Presbyte- 
rians, nor  their  principles,  does  not  appear  to  have  granted 
the  desired  relief.  The  Saybrook  platform,  adopted  in  A.  D. 
1708,  sufficiently  verifies  the  position,  that  the  "front  of 
their  offending  "  was,  that  they  were  Presbyterians.  In  it, 
this  order  of  polity  is  ignored,  if  not  opposed. 

To  these  strangers,  however,  it  was  dear — not  only  be- 
cause that  to  its  blessings,  under  the  kind  providence  and 
grace  of  God,  they  were  indebted  for  all  their  heroism  of 
soul,  which  they  possessed,  but,  because,  in  their  belief,  it 
,was  the  only  form  authorized  by  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  as 
both  Prelacy  and  Congregationalism  must  borrow  from  it, 
while  it  cannot,  in  safety,  borrow  anything  from  either  of 
them. 

How  early  measures  were  taken  to  form  a  Presbytery 
in  New  England  and  to  unite  its  subordinate  courts,  we  do 
not  precisely  know,  as  time  and  neglect  have  wasted  not  a 
little  of  the  records.  Of  these,  the  earliest  extant  are  the 
sessional  minutes  of  the  First  church  in  Derry,  N.  H., 
which  commence  in  a.  d.  1723.  From  these,  and  other 
collateral  sources,  such  as,  references  of  matters  to  the 
Synod  in  Ireland,  from  town  records,  and  direct  references 
to  the  action  of  Presbytery,  in  controversial  communica- 
tions published  by  its  members  and  still  extant — we 
gather,  that  a  Presbytery  was  formed  probably  between 
1726  and  1729. 

*"At  this  date  (about  1736,)  one  ounce  of  silver  was  worth,  or  equal  to, 
twenty-nine  shillings  in  paper."     {Lincoln.) 


IN  NEW   ENGLAND.  57 

Not  only  did  the  emigration  from  Ireland  of  1718  in- 
clude four  Presbyterian  ministers  (the  Rev.  Messrs.  Mc- 
Gregor, Cornwell,  Boyd,  and  Holmes),  of  whom  a  part  re- 
mained in  New  P'ngland  for  years,  but  the  Rev.  Andrew 
LeMercier,  a  graduate  of  Geneva,  commenced  his  pastoral 
labors  in  the  French  church  in  Boston  in  1719,  and  in  the 
same  year  (as  we  have  seen)  the  Rev.  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
accompanied  (as  is  supposed)  by  some  of  his  people,  came 
to  Worcester.  He  might  possibly  have  been  a  member  of 
the  original  Presbytery. 

In  the  al)sence,  then,  of  records,  we  find  not  only  num- 
bers of  ministers  sufficient,  but  also,  the  appointments  of 
ruling  elders  by  sessions  to  meetings  of  Presbytery,  and 
references  from  this  court  to  the  Synod  in  Ireland.  We 
find  also,  as  early  as  a.  d.  1729-30,  men  ordained  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  which  among  Presbyterians  is  done 
always  and  only  by  Presbytery.  This  Presbytery  at  its 
organization  was  called  the  "  Presbyter}^  of  London- 
derry," and  nicknamed,  "the  Irish  Presbytery." 

We  are  not  to  understand,  however,  that  all  who  were 
Presbyterians  in  their  native  land,  upon  their  arrival  in 
New  England,  united  with  it.  Where  a  particular  denom- 
ination have  the  ascendency  in  a  region,  they  absorb  not 
a  little  and  often  control  large  portions  of  the  minor  sects, 
who  dwell  with  them.  This  applies  extensively  to  the 
ministr^^jWho  are  "men  of  like  passions  with  others;  "  es- 
pecially, where  tenacity  of  principle  might  demand  re- 
moval, a  lower  social  position,  or  a  grappling  with  poverty. 
Consequently  there  were  those  who  came  to  these  colonies, 
"who  departed  from  "  their  avowed  principles,  who  "went 
not  with  "  the  Presbytery  "  to  the  work,"  and  who  hired 
themselves  out  to  serve  Congregational  parishes ;  such  as 
the  Rev.  John  McKinstry,  from  Brode,  who  settled  in  Sut- 
ton, Mass.,  in  1720,  the  Rev.  James  Hillhouse,  at  New  Lon- 
don, Ct.,  in  jNlarch,  1722,  the  Rev.  John  Campbell  (said  to 
be  a  Scotchman),  at  Oxford,  Mass.,  on  October  3d,  1722,  the 
Rev.  John  Graham,  in  Stafford,  Ct.,  on  May  29th,  a.  d. 
1723,  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Dorrance,  who  was  settled  at 
Voluntown,  Windham  county,  Ct.,  in  a.  d.  1723. 

Others  again,  on  surveying  the  field  occupied  by  their 
brethren, returned  home.  In  1718  the  Rev.  Wm.  Boyd,  who 
had  been  minister  of  McCaskey,  in  Ireland,  was  among  the 


58  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIAXISM 

emigrants.  He  officiated  once  at  "  the  weekly  lecture  "  in 
Boston  (on  ^larch  lOtli,  1719),  and  of  iiim  the  Rev.  Increase 
INIather,  on  March  25th,  1719,  says:  "The  Rev.  Mr.  Boyd 
arrived  last  sunimer.  He  was  educated  in  p]dinhurL>;h, 
studied  in  Glasgow  (probably  divinity),  and  was  ordained 
at  McCaskey,  in  Ireland.  The  issue  of  this  afiair,  the  com- 
ing to  America,  has  a  great  dependence  on  his  conduct — 
and  since  the  Rev.  author  (of  the  sermon  delivered  at  the 
lecture  aforesaid)  is  returning  to  his  native  country,  let  the 
grace  of  Christ  be  with  him." 

Tins  "  })rayer  of  a  righteous  man  "  was  probably  at  least 
as  "  fervent"  as  it  would  have  been  on  his  behalf  if  Mr. 
Boyd  had  remained  in  New  England. 

He  returned,  settled  at  Taboyne,  and  lived  to  a  good  old 
age. 

At  the  same  time  the  Rev.  William  Cornwell  arrived. 
He  formerly  belonged  to  the  Presbytery  of  Monaghan,  and 
settled,  with  a  number  of  families,  in  Porpooduc,  on  Casco 
Bay.  While  there  he  probably  belonged  to  said  Presby- 
tery, but  how  long  he  continued  or  to  what  part  he  re- 
moved is  not  known.  A  Mr.  \W)odside,  who  came  from 
Ireland,  succeeded  him  in  taking  charge  of  that  people,  but 
he,  exposed  to  many  privations  and  discouragements,  soon 
(it  is  believed)  returned  home.  Still,  so  fjir  as  numbers 
were  concerned,  there  remained  among  the  emigrants  min- 
isters enough  to  form  and  sustain  a  Presbytery,  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  this  was  not  long  delayed.  We  suppose  it  to 
have  been  organized  l)efore  the  death  of  the  Rev.  James 
McGregor,  on  i\Iarch  5th,  a.  d.  1729. 

Who  were,  or  how  many  were  members  of  it  in  its  early 
existence,  cannot  be  fully  known,  but  within  twenty-five 
years  of  their  first  settlement  at  Londonderry,  it  is  be- 
lieved that  LeMercier,  James  McGregor,  Edward  Fitzger- 
ald, William  Johnston,  John  Moorehead,  William  Mc- 
Clenahan,  Matthew  Clarke,  John  Harvey,  John  Caldwell, 
Thomas  Thompson,  Clarke,  of  Kingston,  N.  H..  Dalrymple, 
AVilson,  Morton,  Rutherford,  Davidson,  probably  Urquhart, 
and,  it  may  be,  others,  were  members  of  said  Presbytery. 

We  glean  some  items  of  their  manner  of  procedure  from 
existing  documents,  by  which  we  ascertain  their  strict  ad- 
herence to  Presbyterian  principles. 

In  the  Synod  of  Ulster  in  1705  all  candidates  wxre 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  59 

required  to  subscribe  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith. 
To  these  standards  tliey  expressed  a  firm  adherence  in 
1722.  This,  tiiose  now  in  New  England  did  not  as  yet 
abate. 

On  INIarcli  2d,  1729-30,  James  Reed  was  appointed 
as  the  ruling  elder  from  the  session  of  Londonderry  to  the 
Presbytery  at  Boston,  by  which  Mr.  John  Moorehead  was 
ordained  to  the  ministry  on  the  30th  of  that  month.  The 
session  also  ordered  ''that  his  (Mr.  R.'s)  expenses  for  man, 
horse  and  time  be  paid  by  a  collection,"  which,  when  taken, 
amounted  to  £3.  8s. 

We  gather  from  his  own  record  that,  in  order  to  larger 
usefulness  in  gathering  the  people  preparatory  to  their  or- 
ganization as  a  church,  Mr.  Moorehead  was  then  ordained 
without  charge. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Clarke,  of  Kingston,  was  invited  by  the 
Rev.  ^Ir.  McC4regor  and  his  session  to  assist  at  the  dispen- 
sation of  the  Lord's  Supper  at  Londonderry  on  the  loth 
day  of  October,  1727.  April  5th,  a.  d.  1731,  T.  S.,  who  had 
by  previous  appointment  of  session,  "  already  appeared 
three  several  Sabbath  days  before  the  congregation,  and 
liad  also  appeared  l)efore  Presbytery,"  was  on  tliat  day  be- 
fore and  by  the  session  "  absolved  of  the  heinous  sin  of 
adultery." 

At  the  communion,  on  the  first  Sabbath  in  June,  1732, 
Mr.  Moorehead  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Chester, 
N.  H.,  were  invited  to  assist,  and  on  a  similar  occasion  said 
sessional  record  states :  ''  October  9th,  1732,  having  had  the 
sacrament  yesterday,  we  had  of  communicants  600.  Our 
collection  was  £19.  lis.  10(/.  All  charges  being  paid,  there 
remain  £7,  wdiich  is  given  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson." 

To  install  the  Rev.  Thomas  Tliompson,  who  was  or- 
dained by  the  Presbytery  of  Tyrone,  in  Ireland,  for  Lon- 
donderry, N.  PL,  and  who  arrived  October  3d,  1733,  the 
said  Presbytery  met  on  October  10th. 

The  session  make  this  record  in  their  minutes  of  October 
5th  :  "  There  being  a  Presbytery  to  be  here  on  Wednesday 
next,  Justice  Duncan  and  Mr.  McKeen  are  to  attend 
them."  "October  loth,  session  met.  There  being  a  col- 
lection for  the  Presbytery,  there  were  £10  5.,  of  which  was 
given  to  Mr.  LeMercier  and  Mr.  Moorehead  and  their 
elders  £8,  and  the  rest  for  man  and  horse  to  bring  them 
froni  Haverhill,  and  to  take  them  there  again."     {lb.) 


60  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

November  11th,'  1733,  a  case  of  severe  discipline  "  was 
recommended  to  the  Presbytery."  Another  similar  case, 
February  19th,  1734,  which  session  were  requested  to 
review,  they  resolved  "  it  should  go  to  the  Presbytery." 
"  October  7th,  1734,  Thomas  Wallace  and  John  Craig  were 
appointed  by  session  to  attend  the  Presbytery."  "  March 
9th,  1735,  James  Reed  was  appointed  to  attend  Presbytery  " 
as  an  elder,  and  William  Lyon  to  appear  by  order  of  ses- 
sion before  Presbytery  to  undergo  discipline.  "April  10th, 
1735,  a  case  of  discipline  was  received  back  by  session 
from  Presbytery."  December  11th,  1735,  the  sacrament 
deferred  "  until  after  the  Presbytery,  and  William  Coch- 
rane to  attend  the  Presbytery." 

"January  8th,  1736,  John  Stewart  appealed  from  the 
session  to  the  Presbytery,  and  to  give  his  reasons  in  ten 
days." 

On  "June  19th,  1734,  a  case  occurred,  which  said  Pres- 
bytery could  not  settle,  and  the  Moderator,  the  Rev.  John 
Moorehead,  was  apj^ointed  to  refer  it  to  the  Synod  in 
Ireland." 

These  facts  from  existing  records  show  their  orderly  and 
formal  Presbyterian  way  of  conducting  business  in  church 
courts. 

Their  manner  of  admitting  persons  to  the  eldership  also 
partook  but  little  of  modern  looseness  and  congregational 
proclivities,  as  said  sessional  records,  while  they  collater- 
ally prove  the  elxistence  of  a  Presbytery,  will  verify. 

In  enlarging  the  session  on  "  March  25th,  1736,  the 
elders-elect  were  nominated  to  the  Presbytery,  and  the 
session  agreed  that  their  names  should  be  published  before 
the  congregation.  At  a  meeting,  June  10th,  1736,  the  ses- 
sion having  deliberately  proceeded  with  the  above-named 
(six)  men  to  be  added  to  the  session,  by  nominating  them 
to  the  Presbytery,  as  also  their  names  to  the  congregation, 
do  agree  that  they  shall  be  ordained  elders  on  the  23d  of 
June  inst." 

The  ordination  of  probationers  to  the  work  of  the  min- 
istry was  also  performed  by  said  Presbytery.  Mr.  Joseph 
Harvey,  licentiate,  who  had  received  his  education  in  Ire- 
land, was  elected  pastor  of  the  church  of  Palmer,  Mass., 
and  was  ordained  and  installed  in  said  charge  by  the  Lon- 
donderry Presbytery  on  the  5th  day  of  June,  1734.     The 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  61 

records  of  that  town  show  that  it  was  settled  by  emigrants 
from  England  and  the  north  of  Ireland  in  1727,  and  the 
church  was  formed  in  1730.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Kilpatrick 
first  visited  them,  and  preached  there  five  Sabbaths. 

He  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Weld,  who  preached 
to  them  for  three  months,  and  was  then  succeeded  by  the 
Rev.  Benjamin  Dickenson  for  six  months. 

We  then  learn  also  from  the  "  Proprietor's  Records  "  that 
"  after  preaching  to  them  for  four  years,  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Harvey  was,  on  the  5th  day  of  June,  1734,  ordained  and 
installed  the  first  minister  of  the  church  in  Elbow  settle- 
ment by  the  Rev.  the  delegates  of  the  Presbytery  of  Lon- 
donderry upon  a  scaffold  standing  on  a  plain  on  the  east 
side  of  the  meadow,  called  Cedar  Swamp  Meadow,  within 
Mr.  Harvey's  lot.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Thompson,  from  London- 
derry, preached  the  sermon,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Moorehead 
gave  the  charges." 

Thus,  although  its  records  are  lost  and  the  steps  taken 
in  (and  the  date  of)  its  formation  are  unknown,  yet  we 
have  the  original  Presbytery  of  Londonderry  mentioned 
by  name  in  existing  records,  and  we  can  speak  of  it  with 
certainty.  It  continued,  as  we  may  subsequently  see,  for 
about  forty  years. 

AVe  now  proceed  to  trace  the  origin  and  progress  of  what 
was  probably  the  third  church  formed  by  "  the  oppressed 
brethren  from  the  north  of  Ireland,"  in  New  England. 

Londonderry  having  civil  privileges,  and  no  rival,  nor 
overshadowing  sect  to  whose  church  funds  it  must  contrib- 
ute, was  not,  for  the  same  number  of  years  which  it  had 
then  thus  existed,  surpassed,  if  ever  equalled  in  New  Eng- 
land, for  the  prosperity,  civil  and  religious,  of  its  people. 
Consequently,  it  was  now  preparing  by  its  sources  of  in- 
crease to  send  out,  even  in  the  first  quarter  of  a  century 
of  its  existence,  its  offspring  as  colonies. 

The  Church  of  Worcester,  on  the  contrary,  was  pros- 
trated in  the  dust  before  the  bitter  influences  of  sectarian- 
ism, and  those  of  its  members  who  were  possessed  of  strong 
gospel  principles  had  to  remove  to  the  deeper  toils  and 
dangers  of  the  wilderness,  for  "  freedom  to  worship  God." 
After  the  departure  of  the  Rev.  Wni.  Johnston,  parents 
were  obliged  to  take  their  children  to  distant  towns 
for  baptism,  and  after  the  destruction  of  their  church  edi- 


62  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

fice  a  large  proportion  of  them  removed  to  Otsego  county, 
New  York,  as  well  as  to  different  towns  in  Massachusetts, 
such  as  Pelham. 

Besides  those  Scotch  and  of  Scottish  parentage  who 
resided  in  Boston,  emigrants  of  the  Presbyterian  persua- 
sion appear  to  have  come  annually  in  these  years  from 
Ireland*  and  Scotland  to  New  Enghmd;  and  notwithstand- 
ing the  prejudices  with  which  they  had  to  contend,  in  view 
of  the  accident  of  birth,  not  a  few  of  them,  as  artisans, 
obtained  bondsmen,  gave  security  to  the  authorities  that 
they  would  not  be  disorderly,  and  established  themselves 
in  that  town. 

As  British  subjects  in  a  British  colony,  they  supposed 
themselves  entitled  to  liberty  of  conscience.  This  was, 
hoAvever,  only  with  great  reluctance,  or  rather  as  a  matter 
of  necessity,  accorded  to  them  at  all.  The  overshadowing 
influences  of  "the  Church  of  the  Parish,"  which  had  cast 
no  encouraging  smiles  on  the  French  Presbyterians,  viewed 
the  collecting  of  an  Irisli  Church  as  an  almost  unwarrant- 
able interference. 

Boston  contained  about  16,000  inhabitants,  and  had  five 
churches  of  the  established  order,  when,  a.  d.  1727,  an 
effort  was  commenced  to  collect  a  second  Presbyterian 
Church.  This  was  done  by  Mr.  John  Moorehead,  a  native 
of  Newton,  near  Belfast.  He  was  born  of  pious  parents  in 
1703,  received  the  rudiments  of  his  education  in  Ireland, 
and  finished  his  collegiate  course  of  study  in  Edinburgh. 

*It  )R  stated  by  the  Hon.  Wm.  Willis  (Mass.  H.  G.  Eegr.  p.  236, 
July,  1858)  that  "  in  1719  and  '20  live  ships  under  Captain  Eobert  Tem- 
ple landed  several  hundred  families  on  the  shores  of  the  Kennebec;  that 
Dnmmer's  Indian  war  broke  up  the  colony,  and  that  the  larger  part  of 
them  went  to  Pennsylvania,  while  some  fragments  of  it  settled  in  Tops- 
ham,  Ijrnnswick,  Boothbay,  Pemaquid  and  the  Waldo  Patent." 

"Sir  Robert  Temple  landed  at  Boston  in  1720,  looked  at  Connecticut, 
went  to  Maine  and  settled  Cork,  jVIaine;  brought  over  three  ship-loads 
of  the  children  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  and  planted  several  hundreds 
of  the  Scotch  Irish  on  the  Kennebec  at  'Merry  Meeting-House.' 

"  He,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Kennebec,  laid  the  foundation  for  Dun- 
bar's (settlement)  on  the  east  side  ten  years  afterwards. 

"  In  1722  the  savages  destroyed  '  Merry  Meeting-House  settlement.' 
(Sewall's  Maine,  p.  236.) 

"  Scarcitv  of  corn  almost  equal  to  a  famine  drove  many  from  Ulster  in 
1728  and  '29."  (Willis.) 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  63 

He  was  licensed  to  preach  before  he  came  to  America. 
Some  families  of  his  acquaintance,  it  is  said,  about  or  before 
that  year,  came  over,  and  being  kindly  welcomed  by  their 
countrymen  then  living  in  it,  settled  in  the  town.  ^  Upon 
his  arrival  here,  this  people  (several  of  whom  appear  to 
have  come  with  him)  became  attached  to  him  and  desired 
him  to  become  their  minister.  As  a  licentiate,  he  labored 
some  three  years  to  collect  them  and  prepare  them  for 
organization  as  a  church,  and  with  this  design  he  was,  in 
order  to  be  more  successful,  ordained  on  March  30th,  1730, 
before  a  churcii  was  organized. 

Whether  his  people  were  hindered  by  the  civil  power 
(as  the  French  Presb3'terians  had  for  above  twelve  years 
been  prevented)  from  erecting  a  place  of  worship,  or  not, 
we  are  not  informed.  This  is  liighly  probable,  for  it  is 
a  vigorous  tradition  that,  being  Irish,  it  was  proposed  that 
they  should  give  bonds  to  the  town  that  any  meeting-house 
which  they  might  erect  should  not  become  Roman  Catho- 
lic, and  if  they  had,  in  the  usual  way,  asked  an  Act  of 
Incorporation,  the  request  would  of  course  not  have  been 
granted.  Indeed,  it  was  with  difficulty  that  they  could  as 
Presbyterians  remain  in  the  town  at  all.  Hence  we  have 
such  records  as  the  following : 

To  secure  the  good  town  of  Boston  against  harm  and  loss 
by  Presbyterians,  they  must  indemnify  the  authorities. 
Hence  we  have  entries  as  follows : 

1718.  August  13th.  Town  to  be  secured  against  passen- 
gers lately,  August  4th,  arrived  from  Ireland. 

^  1719.  April  27th.  Geo.  Glinn,  tailor,  from  South  Caro- 
lina, ordered  to  depart  the  town. 

Robert  Holmes  and  wife,  and  Wm.  Holmes  and  children, 
ordered  to  depart  on  the  15th  of  April. 

Alexander  McGregory,  from  Ireland,  to  depart. 

1719.  July  25th.  Joan  McCulloch  (widow),  from  Casco, 
to  depart. 

1719.  June  9th.  Persons  arriving  from  Ireland,  John 
McCannis,  wife  and  children,  John  Henderson,  Wm.  ^lil- 
ler,  wives  and  children,  John  Crichton,  Samuel  Severight, 
Francis  Gray,  wife  and  three  children,  were  ordered  to 
depart  on  June  13th. 

1719.  October  24th.  Several. 
•    1719.  January  22d.  Many  farmers  from  Ireland,  twenty- 


64  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

one  in  all,  were  on  November  30th  last  warned  to  depart; 
also  John  Walker,  wife  and  three  children. 

Havinfr,  as  foreigners  under  bonds,  to  compete  in  the 
trades  with  the  natives  and  with  Englishmen,  these  "op- 
pressed brethren  "  were  too  poor  to  purchase  land  and 
erect  a  meeting-house ;  yet  Divine  Providence  raised  up  to 
them  a  friend. 

A  Mr.  John  Little,  who  was  a  gardener  and  market  man, 
and  who  appears  to  have  resided  in  Boston  for  some  time, 
as  he  was  married  tliere  in  1718,  and  whose  dwelling  was 
in  Milk  street,  purchased  in  May,  1729,  a  lot  of  land  on 
Long  Lane,  on  which  there  then  stood  a  barn.  Into  this 
"rude  and  lowly  structure,"  after  some  time,  when  his 
dwelling  would  not  contain  them,  he  invited  his  country- 
men to  enter,  and  worship  that  Saviour  who  was  born  in 
''a  stable  and  laid  in  a  manger." 

From  all  that  is  known  of  his  history,  he  appears  to  have 
had,  until  late  in  life  and  after  his  second  marriage,  no 
offspring.  Consequently,  by  industry  he  was  enabled  to 
accumulate  some  property.  Although  unable  to  write  his 
own  name,  his  first,  thrifty  and  pious  wife,  Mary,  through 
whose  counsel  and  promptings  he  was  encouraged  to  create 
a  Trust,  which  should  in  subserviency  to  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  honor  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  perpetuate  his  own 
name  to  coming  generations,  was  able  to  write  her  own, 
and  so  far  as  was  necessary  to  keep  his  current  accounts. 
His  business,  as  a  gardener,  kept  him  in  and  near  the 
town,  in  which  he  may  have  been  one  of  the  earliest  Irish 
settlers. 

He  had,  on  the  14th  day  of  May,  A.  D.  1729,  bought  of 
Henry  Deering  for  £550,  "  in  lawful  public  bills  of  credit," 
the  aforesaid  lot,  nearly  one-quarter  of  an  acre,  and  about 
one  twenty-four-hundredth  part  of  the  original  site  of  Bos- 
ton. Disposed  to  "  honor  the  Lord  with  his  substance  " — 
feeling  deeply  for  the  best  interests  of  his  then  present  and 
future  resident  countrymen  in  the  town,  and  the  duty  of 
providing  for  his  own  spiritual  welfare  by  enjoying  the 
public  ordinances  of  religion,  he  afterwards  devoted  said 
land  to  religious  use  for  ever.  That  Mr.  Moorehead  was 
ordained  March  30th,  1730,  we  gather  from  two  facts — the 
appointment  by  the  session  of  Londonderry  on  March  2d, 
1730,  of  James  Reed,  ruling  elder,  to  attend  the  Presbytery 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  65 

at  Boston,  and  the  statement  of  Mr.  Moorebead,  which  he 
has  written  on  his  Registry  of  Marriages  and  Baptisms, 
that  "I  began  to  baptize  on  and  after  March  31st,  1730." 

"This  religious  society  was  established  by  his  pious  zeal 
and  assiduity."  It  required  years  of  labor  to  collect  the 
scattered  fragments,  to  gather  together  even  the  few  dis- 
persed brethren  of  the  Presbyterian  faith  then  resident  in 
Boston  and  the  neighboring  towns,  exposed  as  those  had 
been  who  had  for  any  length  of  time  resided  here  to  the 
influences  of  another  ecclesiastical  government. 

Perseverance,  under  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  brought 
success,  and  in  a  few  months  after  his  ordination  he  had 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  a  church  organized.  Having  "sown 
in  tears,  his  reaping  time  of  jo}^  "  now  began,  and  "the  first 
meeting  of  the  brethren  with  their  minister,  for  the  election 
of  ruling  elders,  according  to  the  government  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  was  held  in  the  house  of  Mr.  John  Little,  in 
Milk  street,  on  the  14th  day  of  July,  1730.  The  elders 
then  chosen  were  John  Young,  Robert  Patton,  Samuel 
McClure,  Richard  McClure  and  Thos.  McMullen."  (Mc- 
Clure's  Sketches,  1807.) 

We  have  seen  the  manner  pursued  by  the  church  session 
of  Londonderry  in  a  similar  election,  and  whether  each  of 
the  steps  there  enumerated  was  now  taken  with  these 
brethren  or  not,  we  know  not;  but  they  "were  (in  due 
time)  ordained,"  and  the  organization  of  the  Second  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Boston  was  then  completed  by  their 
installation.  How  soon  afterwards  a  call  was  made  out 
for  Mr.  Moorehead,  on  the  acce]:)tance  of  which  he  was 
installed  as  their  pastor,  we  know  not;  but  it  was  doubtless 
done  at  an  early  day. 

He  had  labored  among  them  with  an  increasingly  mu- 
tual attachment,  and  the  consummation  of  this  official 
spiritual  relation  would  not  be  unduly  delayed. 

He  was  the  forty-sixth  minister  settled  in  Boston,  and 
"  soon  after  his  induction  he  married  Miss  Sarah  Parsons, 
an  English  lady,  who  survived  him  about  one  year."  As 
the  congregation  met  for  the  important  purpose  of  the 
election  of  elders,  when  a  full  meeting  would  be  desirable 
and  almost  certain,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  John  Little,  on 
Milk  street,  it  is  at  least  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they 
met  often,  if  not  statedly,  there  on  the  Sabbath  for  public 
5 


bb  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

worship,  for  months  or  for  years.  Indeed,  these  "  Preshy- 
terian  strangers  "  had  no  other  place  in  which  to  meet, 
until  they  went  to  his  barn.  The  overshadowing  influ- 
ences of  "  the  Churcli  of  the  Parish,"  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
case  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  A\'orcester,  and  in  the 
impediments  cast  in  the  way  of  the  French  Church  in  the 
same  parish  in  Boston,  when  endeavoring  res})ectively  to 
supply  themselves  with  })laces  of  worship,  would  afford  to 
tliese  "  oppressed  Irish  l)rethren  "  but  little  encouragenient, 
wlien  they  desired  to  find  "a  place  of  habitation  for  the 
mighty  God  of  Jacob."  Their  case,  in  view  of  the  aspect 
of  colonial  law  and  its  theocracy  towards  them,  could  not 
have  l)een  flattering.  Consequently  the  inconvenience  of 
a  dwelHng,  or  the  associations  of  a  l)arnyard,  were  by  them 
readily  borne,  in  order  that  they  might  "  sing  the  JehovaJi^s 
song  in  a  foreign  land"  (Ps.  cxxxvii.  4),  and  perpetuate 
tliose  principles  which  had  descended  to  them  sealed  by 
the  blood  of  a  martyred  ancestry. 

As  "  a  man's  house  is  "  said  to  be  "  his  castle,"  so  John 
Little,  with  liis  faithful  wife,  appears  to  liave  projected  the 
idea  of  turning  liis  barn  into  a  meeting-house. 

By  making  it  a  trust  with  a  charitable  use,  for  Presby- 
terians to  hold  and  enjoy  ibrever,  he,  as  a  British  subject, 
with  his  counsel,  supposed  that  they  could  avoid  troubling 
the  selectmen  or  the  general  court.  Trusts  for  the  wor- 
ship of  God,  for  education  and  the  aid  of  the  poor,  they 
su})i)osed  to  be  sacred  throughout  the  British  empire. 

At  what  time  lie  began  to  "  convert "  his  ''  barn  "  into  a 
meeting-house  does  not  appear,  but  it  was  obviously  after 
the  14th  day  of  July,  173U,  when  the  work  of  church  or- 
ganization was  in  progress.  Previously  to  the  election  and 
ordination  of  Ruling  Elders,  there  would  be  no  strong 
probability  that  a  house  of  worship  would  be  required. 
He  had  owned  the  land  from  the  14th  day  of  May,  1729, 
and  probably  he  soon  after  the  14th  of  July,  1730,  began 
to  "  transform  "  his  barn. 

Some  months  afterwards,  these  people  had  a  building 
separated  from  former  uses  to  the  worship  of  God,  and 
how  delightful  to  them  must  have  been  their  "  little  sanc- 
tuary ! "  According  to  the  autobiograph\^  of  the  Rev.  Dr, 
David  McClure,  who  was  one  of  Mr.  Moorehead's  pupils, 
*'  This  little  colony  of  Christians  for  some  time  carried  on 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  67 

worship  in  a  barn,  and  as  the  congregation  increased  by 
emigrants  from  Scotland  and  Ireland,  they  added  to  it 
two  wings." 

In  preparing  the  building  for  this  use,  he  erected  for 
himself,  in  common  with  the  others,  a  ''  pew  and  seat," 
and  as  the  congregation  gathered  strength,  they  appointed 
"  a  committee  for  managing  the  prudential  affairs  thereof." 
After  years  of  ownership  he  offered  the  premises  wholly 
to  them  on  certain  conditions.  In  this  attempt  unanimitv 
was  eventualh^  lost  between  the  donor  and  the  immediate 
beneficiaries.  Part  of  the  history  of  this  strife  is  ascer- 
tained by  verbal  statement  and  part  is  on  record.  As  to 
the  former,  the  writer  was  informed  in  a.  d.  1S49,  by  Mrs. 
I.  Cossington,  a  granddaughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Moore- 
head,  and  who  was  aliove  fifty  years  of  age  when  her 
mother,  Mrs.  Agnes  Wilson,  deceased,  who  was  thirty- 
seven  years  of  age  when  her  father  died,  that  it  was  the 
unvarying  account  of  the  church  estate  founded  by  Mr. 
Little,  that  "he  would  give  to  them  his  lot  of  land  forever, 
if  they  would  pay  him  for  his  work  on  his  meeting-house, 
and  keep  a  meeting-house  on  the  land,  and  keep  a  seat  or 
pew  in  it  for  his  heirs  forever,"  and  that  the  congregation 
all  agreed  to  do  this. 

They,  however,  soon  differed  as  to  the  amount  of  pay- 
ment which  he  should  receive,  and  in  less  than  four  years 
after  the  ordination  and  settlement  of  their  pastor,  "  sun- 
dry disputes  and  diff"erences  arose  between  "  them. 

Little  not  only  owned  the  land  and  the  house,  but  he 
also  controlled  "  the  outstanding  debts  due  by  the  said 
congregation."  Instead  of  attempting  to  compel  him  by 
a  suit  in  civil  law,  to  deliver  up  their  "  outstanding  debts," 
as  they  would,  in  all  probability,  have  done,  if  he  were 
only  their  agent  or  factor,  they  asked  him  to  submit  their 
"  disputes  and  diff'erences  "  to  peaceful  arbitration,  and  in 
order  to  this,  they  "signified  their  mutual  consent  by 
their  several  obligations,  called  bands  of  submission."  By 
this  process  concord  was  soon  re-established.  The  award 
was  made  by  persons  whose  names  indicate  that  they 
belonged  to  the  French  Church  of  the  town,  and  was  as 
follows  • 


68  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 


Aivard  of  Jacob  Sheafe,  Stephen  Bouiineau^  and  Hugh  Fa7is. 

To  all  people  unto  whom  this  present  writing  of  award 
shall  come,  Jacob  Sheafe,  Gentleman,  Stephen  Boutineau 
and  Hugh  Vans,  Merchants,  all  of  Boston,  in  the  county 
of  Suffolk,  and  province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in 
New  England,  send  greeting : 

Whereas,  upon  sundry  disputes  and  differences  arisen 
between  John  Little,  of  Boston  aforesaid,  Gardner,  on  the 
one  part,  and  George  Glen,  Taylor ;  Edward  Allen,  Taylor ; 
Andrew  Knox,  Mariner;  George  Southerland,  Shopkeeper; 
William  Hall,  Leather-dresser;  Daniel  Macneal,  Laborer; 
Samuel  Miller,  Gunsmith;  Abraham  All,  Taylor;  and 
William  Shaw,  Taylor,  all  of  Boston  aforesaid,  of  the  other 
part,  they  the  said  partys  for  the  determination  thereof 
and  by  their  mutual  consents  signifyed  by  their  several 
obligations,  dated  the  fourteenth  day  of  January,  Anno 
Domini,  1735,  appoint  us,  the  said  Jacob  Sheafe  and  Ste- 
phen Boutineau,  arbitrators  of  all  their  differences  till  that 
time,  and  agreed  that  either  of  us,  in  case  of  our  non-agree- 
ment, should  choose  a  third  person — and  we  being  willing 
and  desirous  to  determine  the  disputes  and  differences 
between  said  partys,  in  order  to  effect  the  same,  have 
chosen  the  said  Hugh  Vans  to  assist  us  therein.  And  the 
said  partys  by  the  said  obligations  further  agreed,  that  we, 
making  up  our  award  of  the  same  under  our  hands  and 
seals,  ready  to  be  delivered  to  the  said  partys,  on  or  before 
the  fifteenth  day  of  April  curi'ent,  should  finally  determine 
the  premises  as  by  their  several  obligations,  with  condi- 
tions for  the  performance  thereof,  will  more  fully  appear. 
Now  in  pursuance  of  the  said  submission  and  to  answer 
the  end  proposed  thereby,  we,  the  saide  Jacob  Sheafe,  Ste- 
phen Boutineau  and  Hugh  Vans  accept  of  the  burthen  of 
the  said  award,  and  having  fully  heard  both  partys, 
perused,  examined  and  deliberately  considered  on  all 
papers,  matters  and  things  disclosed  or  pretended  to  us 
by  either  party  as  the  cause  of  their  variance,  do  make, 
publish  and  declare  this  our  award  between  them  con- 
cerning the  premises,  in  manner  following,  that  is  to  say : 
— Imprimis,  we  award  and  order  that  the  said  George 
Glen,  Edward  Allen,,  Andrew  Knox,  George  Southerland, 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  69 

William  Hall,  Daniel  Macneal,  Samuel  Miller,  Abraham 
All  and  William  Shaw  shall,  within  the  space  of  two 
months  from  the  date  hereof,  pa}'  or  cause  to  be  paid  unto 
the  said  John  Little  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  forty 
pounds  and  five  pence,  in  Publick  Bills  of  Credit,  which 
is  and  shall  be  in  full  of  the  claimes  and  demands  which 
the  said  John  Little  had  against  ye  congregation  belong- 
ing to  the  Presbyterian  meeting-house  in  Long  Lane,  in 
Boston  aforesaid,  w4th  respect  to  his  attendance  upon  and 
looking  after  the  building  of  ye  sd  meeting-house,  and  all 
his  accounts  of  charges  and  disbursements  about  the  same, 
and  the  land  whereon  it  stands,  as  also  touching  and  con- 
cerning the  said  Little's  purchase  of  the  said  land  of 
Henry  Deering,  Esq.,  at  the  time  of  entering  into  the  said 
Bands  of  submission. 

Item.  We  award  and  order  that,  upon  ye  payment  of 
ye  sd  sum,  the  said  John  Little  shall  make  and  execute  in 
due  form  of  law,  unto  the  said  congregation,  a  good  Law- 
ful Deed  of  Conveyance  of  the  Land  whereon  ye  sd  meet- 
ing-house stands  and  is  thereunto  appertaining,  with  the 
privaledges  and  appurtenances  thereunto  belonging,  which 
the  said  Little  bought  and  purchased  of  the  said  Deering 
as  aforesaid.  To  Hold  the  same  unto  the  said  congregation 
according  to  ye  Tenures  and  after  the  same  manner  as  the 
Church  of  Scotland  hold  and  Enjoy  the  Lands  whereon 
their  meeting-liouses  are  Erected. 

Item.  We  agree  and  determine  and  do  hereby  ascertain 
the  Right  and  Interest  which  the  sd  John  Little  hath  in 
the  said  meeting-house  to  be  the  pew  and  seat  therein 
now  in  his  possession,  which  is  to  remain  good  to  him 
forever,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  rest  of  the  proprietors 
in  the  said  meeting  do  hold  and  enjoy  their  respective 
Rights  and  Interests  therein. 

Item.  We  award  and  order  that  the  said  John  Little 
shall  assign  Transfers  and  make  over  unto  the  said  George 
Glen,  Edward  Allen,  Andrew  Knox,  George  Southerland, 
William  Hall,  Daniel  Macneal,  Samuel  Miller,  Abraham 
All  and  William  Shaw,  as  they  are  a  committee  chosen 
and  appointed  by  the  said  congregation  for  managing  the 
prudential  affairs  thereof,  the  outstanding  debts  due  to 
the  said  congregation  amounting,  as  by  account  appears, 
to  the  sum  of  fifty-four  pounds  five  shillings,  and  shall  in- 


70  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

vest  them  with  all  the  power  he  ye  said  Little  is  possessed 
of,  in  order  to  recover  the  same  for  the  use  of  the  said 
congregation. 

Lastly.  AVe  award  and  order  that  the  charge  of  this  ar- 
bitration shall  be  borne  and  sustained  by  the  said  Partys 
share  and  share  alike.  In  Witness  whereof  we  have  here- 
unto set  our  hands  and  seals,  the  ninth  day  of  April,  Anno 
Domini,  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty-five. 
Jacob  Sheafe,  and  a  seal ;  Stephen  Boutineau,  and  a  seal ; 
Hugh  Vans,  and  a  seal.  Signed,  sealed  and  delivered  in 
ye  presence  of  (By  the  said  Stephen  Boutineau,  and  Hugh 
Vans)  Daniel  Marsh.  And  by  the  said  Jacob  Sheafe  in 
the  presence  of  us  Daniel  Marsh,  Anth.  Woulfe. 

These  two  months  soon  passed,  and  as  the  dervish  in  the 
desert,  who  from  time  to  time  found  his  spring  of  living 
water  rendered  nearly  valueless  for  a  season  by  the  feet  of 
the  camels  of  the  pilgrims,  in  order  to  do  good  to  himself 
and  to  future  generations,  surrounded  it  with  a  safe  stone 
curb,  so  that  the  thirsty  might  drink  and  thank  their 
benefactor  while  he  lived  and  bless  his  memory  after  his 
death — so  John  Little,  on  the  9th  day  of  June,  a.  d.  1735, 
devoted  a  lot  of  his  land,  for  he  had  other  lots  in  town,  to 
the  worship  and  glory  of  God  and  to  the  welfare  of  men,  in 
connection  with  a  specified  and  definite  "  form  of  sound 
words  "  imbedded  in  the  aff'ections  of  Presbyterians,  and 
sealed  by  the  blood  of  the  martj'rs  of  his  native  realm. 

His  deed  reads  thus : 

"  This  indenture,  made  the  ninth  day  of  June,  Anno 
Domini,  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty-five,  and 
in  the  eighth  3^ear  of  the  Reign  of  our  Sovereign  Lord 
George  the  Second,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain, 
France  and  Ireland,  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  &c. : 
Between  John  Little  of  Boston,  in  the  County  of  Suffolk 
and  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New  England, 
Gardner,  on  the  one  part,  and  George  Glen,  Tailor,  William 
Hall,  Leather  Dresser,  and  A\"illiam  Shaw,  Tailor,  all  of 
Boston,  aforesaid,  and  Andrew  Knox,  of  said  Boston, 
Mariner,  for  themselves,  and  as  a  Committee  chosen  and 
appointed  by  the  rest  of  the  Congregation  belonging  to  the 
Presbyterian  Meeting  House,  in  Long   Lane,  in  Boston 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  71 

aforesaid,  for  managing  the  Prudential  Affairs  thereof,  on 
the  other  part  witnesseth  : — 

"  That  the  said  John  Little,  for  and  in  consideration  of 
the  sum  One  Hundred  and  Forty  Pounds  and  five  pence, 
in  good  publick  bills  of  credit  of  the  Province  aforesaid,  to 
him  in  Hand,  at  and  before  the  ensealing  and  delivery  of 
these  Presents,  well  and  truly  paid  by  the  said  George 
Glen,  William  Hall,  William  Shaw  and  Andrew  Knox,  in 
behalf  of  themselves  and  as  a  Committee  chosen  as  afore- 
said, the  receipt  whereof  the  said  John  Little  doth  hereby 
acknowledge,  and  thereof  doth  acquit,  and  discharge  the 
said  George  Glen,  William  Hall,  William  Shavv^  and 
Andrew  Knox,  in  behalf  of  themselves,  and  in  their 
capacity  aforesaid,  and  their  successors  in  said  trust,  and 
each  every  of  them  forever  by  these  Presents,  hath  given, 
granted,  bargained,  sold,  aliened,  enfeoffed,  released,  con- 
veyed and  confirmed,  and  by  these  Presents  doth  give, 
grant,  bargain,  sell,  alien,  enfeofPe,  release,  convey  and  con- 
firm, unto  the  said  George  Glen,  William  Hall,  William 
Shaw  and  Andrew  Knox,  a  certain  Piece  or  Parcel  of  Land, 
situate,  lying,  and  being  in  Boston  aforesaid,  and  is 
bounded  in  the  Front  Westerly  upon  Long  Lane,  so  called, 
there  measures  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  feet;  North- 
erly by  land  of  Mr.  Jonathan  Loring,  and  there  measures 
ninety-eight  feet;  Easterly  by  land  of  Nathanael  Green, 
Esq.,  and  there  measures  one  hundred  and  fifteen  feet; 
Southerly  by  Bury  Street,  so  called,  and  there  measures 
one  hundred  and  twenty-six  feet  and  an  half  foot ;  or,  how- 
ever otherwise  butted  and  bounded,  or  be  the  dimentions 
on  either  side,  more  or  less.  Also,  the  Meeting  House  on 
the  said  land  standing.  Together  with  all  and  Singular,  the 
rights,  members,  profits,  priviledges,  fences,  improvements, 
and  appurtenances,  whatsoever  to  the  said  granted  and 
bargained  piece  or  parcel  of  Land,  and  Meeting  House,  be- 
longing, or  in  any  wise  appertaining,  or  therewith  now 
used,  occupied  or  enjoj^ed.  Also,  all  the  Estate,  Right, 
Title,  Interest,  Inheritance,  Use,  Possession,  Property, 
Claim  and  Demand  whatsoever,  of  him  the  said  John  Lit- 
tle, of,  in  and  to  the  said  granted  and  bargained  Premises, 
and  ever}^  Part  and  Parcel  thereof,  with  the  appurtenances : 
and  the  Reversion  and  Reversions,  Remainder  and  Re- 
mainders thereof,  saving  and  always  reserving  to  the  said 


72  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

John  Little,  his  heirs  and  assigns  forever,  the  Right  and 
Interest  which  the  said  John  Little  hath  in  the  said  Meet- 
ing House  and  Land,  to  wit:  the  Pew  and  seat  therein 
now  in  his  possession,  which  is  to  remain  good  to  him,  his 
Heirs  and  Assigns  forever  in  the  same  manner  as  the  rest 
of  the  Proprietors  in  the  said  Meeting  House  do  hold  and 
enjoy  their  respective  rights  and  interests  therein,  which 
right  and  interest  by  a  certain  Instrument  of  award  made 
by  Jacob  Sheaf,  Gentleman,  and  Stephen  Boutineau  and 
Hugh  Vans,  Merchants,  all  of  Boston  aforesaid,  between 
the  said  John  Little  on  the  one  part,  and  the  said  George 
Glen,  William  Hall,  William  Shaw  and  others,  a  Commit- 
tee, chosen  for  the  purposes  aforesaid,  on  the  other  part; 
bearing  date  the  ninth  day  of  April,  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  thirty-five,  was  ascertained  to  the  said  John 
Little,  as  by  the  said  Award,  reference  thereto  being  had, 
may  more  at  large  api)ear. 

"  To  HAVE  AND  TO  Pioi.D  the  Said  piece  or  parcel  of  Land, 
Meeting  House,  and  Premises  with  the  appurtenances 
(saving  and  reserving  as  aforesaid),  unto  the  said  George 
Glen,  William  Shaw  and  William  Hall  and  Andrew  Knox, 
in  their  caj^acity  aforesaid,  and  to  their  successors  in  that 
Trust  and  office  forever,  but  to  and  for  the  only  proper  use, 
benefit  and  behoof  of  the  said  Congregation  (according  to 
the  Tenures  and  after  the  same  manner  as  the  Church  of 
Scotland  hold  and  enjoy  the  Lands  whereon  the  Meeting 
Houses  are  erected),  forever,  and  for  no  other  use,  intent  or 
purpose  whatsoever;  with  Warranty  against  him  the  said 
John  Little,  and  his  heirs,  and  all  and  every  other  Person 
and  Persons,  whatsoever,  from,  by  or  under  him  or  them. 
Together  with  the  Benefit  of  a  Warranty  in  a  certain  Deed 
mentioned  from  Theodore  Atkinson,  Gentleman,  as  the 
afore-named  Nathanael  Green,  purchased  the  same  as  in 
and  by  the  said  deed,  bearing  date  the  twentieth  day  of 
November,  1723,  of  Record  in  the  Registry  of  Deeds,  for  the 
County  of  Sufiblk,  may  appear,  which  granted  Land  and 
Premises,  with  the  appurtenances  before  the  said  Meeting 
House  was  thereon  erected,  the  said  John  Little  purchased 
of  Henry  Deering,  Esqr. 

"  In  Witness  whereof,  I,  the  said  John  Little,  and  Mary 
his  wife  (in  token  of  her  free  consent  to  these  Presents  and 
Release  of  her  Right  and  Title  of  Dower,  and  Thirds  of,  in 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  73 

and  unto  the  afore-granted  and  bargained  Premises,  with 
the  appurtenances),  have  hereunto  set  their  hands  and 
seals,  the  Day  and  Year  first  aforewritten.  John  X  Little, 
his  mark  and  a  seal ;  Mary  Little  and  a  seal.  Signed, 
sealed  and  delivered  in  presence  of  William  Morto,  John  Sale. 
Received  on  the  day  of  the  date  of  the  aforewritten  Deed, 
of  the  aforenamed  George  Glen,  William  Hall,  and  William 
Shaw  and  Andrew  Knox,  Committee  as  aforesaid,  the  sum 
of  One  Hundred  and  Fort}'  Pounds  and  five  pence,  being 
the  Consideration  Money  aforementioned.  John  X  Little, 
his  mark.  Suffolk,  SS. — Boston,  June  9th,  1735.  The 
aforenamed  John  Little,  and  ^lary  his  wife,  personally  ap- 
pearing, acknowledged  the  aforewritten  Instrument  by 
them  executed  to  be  their  act  and  Deed.  Before  me, 
Joshua  Winslow,  Justice  of  the  Peace,  June  10,  1735. 
Received,  and  accordingly  Entered  and  Examined 

"  Per  Samuel  Gerrish,  Register. 

"A  True  Copy  from  the  Records  of  Deeds  for  the  County 
of  Suffolk,  Lib.  51,  folio  14. 

"  (Attest)  Henry  Alline,  Register.'''' 

Thus,  not  only  was  harmony  re-established,  but  a  com- 
pact of  the  most  solemn  nature  known  in  the  alienation, 
conveyance  and  possession  of  landed  property  on  earth 
was  made,  (upon,  or  at  least)  relating  to,  this  estate.  A 
trust  was  on  that  day  by  him  created,  and  by  the  "pru- 
dential committee  "  accepted  for  the  beneficiaries,  which 
tliey  mutually  designed  to  have  perpetuated  while  British 
civilization  should  continue  (or  be  succeeded  by  its 
equivalent)  upon  this  soil. 

From  that  day  forward,  "  the  said  premises  formed  a 
species  of  property,  which  is  not  the  subject  of  any  ex- 
changeable or  marketable  value."  (See  corporate  oath 
of  the  trustees  of  the  occupants  in  1854.) 

Tliis  chuch,  unfettered  by  pew  patronage,  entitled  to 
the  immunities  of  trusts  under  the  British  constitution, 
free  from  the  overshadowing  influences  of  the  "great  and 
general  court  "  of  the  colony — having  a  faithful  pastor  and 
at  times,  twelve  diligent  ruling  elders,  now  started  on  a 
career  of  prosperity. 

When  "  the  converted  barn "  became  too  strait  for 
them,  "  they  added  to  it  two  wings,"  and  in  less  than  six 


7-i  HISTORY  OF  presbyterianism: 

years  a  much  larger  house  was  required,  which  was  erected 
and  occupied  in  a.  d.  1742. 

Of  this  nian,  who  gave  of  his  £550  in  "  public  bills  of 
credit,"  at  least,  £409.  19s.  7fZ.,  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  it 
may  not  be  without  interest  to  give  a  more  extended  no- 
tice. 

In  disposition,  he  was  sociable,  charitable,  and  unusually 
liberal. 

When  "  on  ^larch  17th,  1737,  twenty-six  gentlemen  of 
the  Irish  nation,"  resident  in  Boston,  formed  "  the  Irish 
Charitable  Society  "  of  that  town,  his  name  is  the  twentieth 
on  the  list.  With  him  were  George  Glen  and  Andrew 
Knox,  while  in  1737,  Wm.  Hall  was  President. 

In  his  will,  which  was  made  July  25th,  and  probated 
September  1st,  1741,  after  provision  for  the  payment  of 
all  his  debts,  the  allotment  of  one-third  of  his  real  estate 
to  his  wife,  a  small  sum  to  his  father,  to  his  brothers,  sis- 
ters and  mother-in-hi\v,  he  gave  two  pounds  to  Charles,  son 
of  Peter  Pelham,  schoohnaster,  for  the  friendship  received 
from  his  father  and  family — and  the  rest  of  his  estate,  real 
and  personal,  to  his  two  sons,  his  dear  children,  John  and 
Moses,  in  equal  portions — and  if  they  should  both  die 
before  they  should  marry,  or  arrive  at  twenty-one  years 
of  age — "  Then,  I  give  all  my  real  and  personal  estate  and 
profits  thereof  remaining,  to  the  overseers  of  the  poor  of 
Boston  forever — for  the  following  purposes,  and  no  other 
use  whatsoever,  viz.:  to  improve  the  same  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage, and  of  the  annual  profits  to  employ  some  able 
and  proper  person  from  time  to  time  forever,  as  a  school- 
master, to  teach  poor  Protestant  children  whose  parents 
are  of  the  kingdom  of  Ireland,  and  inhabitants  of  Boston, 
in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  and  pay  him  a  proper 
sum  for  the  same.  To  provide  for  such  children  books 
and  utensils,  with  a  Psalter,  Testament  and  Bible  to  each 
of  them. 

"  None  to  be  admitted  to  this  charity,  but  such  as  are 
properly  recommended  and  seven  years  old,  and  to  leave 
at  fourteen  years  of  age.  '  Their  number  to  be  regulated 
by  said  overseers  and  directors  forever.' " 

He  did  not  with  this  charity,  as  he  did  with  the  trust 
created  on  June  9th,  a.  d.  1735,  for  a  vastly  higher  purpose, 
put  it  beyond  the  contingencies  of   human  life;   yet  it 


IN  NEW   ENGLAND.  .75 

manifests  a  kind,  generous,  and  Christian  spirit  in  the 
man,  while  it  shews  ns,  to  some  extent,  the  inseparable 
connection  between  true  Presbyterianism  and  the  dif- 
fusion of  elementary  education. 

Whether  either  of  his  sons  came  to  manhood  or  mar- 
ried is  now  unknown. 

He  had  by  this  date,  August,  1741,  not  only  "served  his 
generation  by  the  will  of  God;  "  but  had  created  a  trust, 
designed,  if  not  perverted,  to  subserve  the  glory  of  Jeho- 
vah, the  honor  of  Christ,  and  the  welfare  of  true  Presby- 
terians forever — and  "he  being  dead  j'et  speaketh,"  and 
serves  each  succeeding  generation,  so  that  one  hundred 
and  forty-six  years  have  not  j^et  erased  his  name  from  the 
list  of  Ciiristian  benefactors." 

A  quarter  of  a  century  had  not  given  these  "oppressed 
Irish  Presbyterian  brethren  "  civil  and  social  freedom  yet, 
as  we  see  by  the  record  of  such  examples  of  indemnifica- 
tion as  the  following. 

1728,  March  5th.  Robt.  Gardner,  from  Scotland,  on  in- 
demnifying in  the  sum  of  £100,  was  admitted  to  open 
business  as  a  wigmaker. 

1741,  April  loth.  Matthew  Campbell,  from  Nutfield, 
(Derry,  N.  H.,)  obtained  leave  to  open  a  tobacco  shop. 
Wm.  More  and  he  to  give  bonds  for  £50  indemnity  for 
five  years. 

1741,  April  22d.  Andrew  Craigie  and  family  admitted 
for  five  years  for  £150. 

1741,  April  29th.  McGregor  and  wife  and  two  children, 
from  Brunswick,  "to  be  here  next  Wednesday." 

1741,  June  24th.  Robt.  Henry  indemnifies  for  five  years 
as  a  blacksmith  for  £100.  Green  and  ^^'alker  w^ere  his 
bondsmen. 

We  now  chronologically  return  for  a  time  to  the  church 
of  Londonderry,  in  A'iew  especially  of  its  early  loss  of 
its  beloved  friend  and  pastor,  while,  at  the  same  time  we 
look  at  the  ecclesiastical  usages  of  this  people,  in  common 
with  all  scriptural  Presbyterians,  in  some  of  their  dis- 
criminating features,  as  distinct  from  Prelacy  and  Congre- 
gationalism. 

In  doing  this,  I  again  quote  extensiveh^  from  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Parker. 

"  The  text  from  which  the  Rev.  Mr.  McGregor  preached. 


76  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

when  he  took  the  pastoral  care  of  the  infant  church  in 
Londonderry,  then  literally  in  the  wilderness;  was  Ez. 
xxxvii.  26. 

"This  promise  as  applied  to  this  band  of  emigrants, 
has  been  strikingly  fulfilled,  in  the  permanency,  enlarge- 
ment and  prosperity  of  the  settlement,  then  devoutly 
commenced.  It  has  been  shewn,  that  the  leading  motive 
of  these  colonists  in  coming  to  this  country  was  the  more 
full  and  free  enjoyment  of  religious  privileges. 

"Like  the  Pilgrims,  they  sought  a  home  and  a  place, 
with  'freedom  to  worship  God.'  The  Londonderry  emi- 
gration, in  1718,  so  called  (as  they  mostly  came  from  that 
city  and  its  vicinity,)  included  four  Presbyterian  ministers. 
Of  these,  McGregor  was  chosen  pastor.  The  records  of 
the  church  commence  June  27th,  1723.  The  first  session 
was  composed  of  ten  ruling  elders,  and  one  was  added 
in  1726."  The  following  extracts  from  their  records  may 
shew  how  they  "took  heed  to  the  flock  over  wdiich  the  Holy 
Ghost  had  made  them  overseers.  The  first  case  presented 
Avas  the  report  that  James  Doake  had  quarrelled  with  his 
Either  and  had  beaten  him.  *  The  session  came  to  the 
conclusion :  that  after  a  great  deal  of  pains  taken,  they 
cannot  find  it  proven,  that  James  Doake  did  beatlhis  father, 
yet  the  session  agreeth  that  James  Doake  should  be  rebuked 
before  them,  for  giving  his  father  the  lie,  and  to  be  ex- 
horted to  respect  and  honor  his  parents  in  words  and  ac- 
tions." 

The  next  case  of  discipline  was  a  charge  brought  by 
John  Archibald  against  James  Moor,  for  using  unjustifia- 
ble expressions  of  a  profane  character,  which  Moor  denied  ; 
yet  he  was  exhorted  by  the  session  to  be  ^vatchful  and 
more  circumspect  for  the  future. 

A  trait  of  character  which  distinguished  this  people 
was  a  generous  sympathy  for  their  friends  in  afliiction,  and 
a  readiness  to  tender  relief.  Hence  we  find,  that  at  the 
early  period  of  1725,  the  session  ordered  two  public  col- 
lections on  Sabbath.  One  was  to  aid  a  Mr.  James  Clarke, 
residing  in  Rutland,  Massachusetts,  to  ransom  his  vson 
taken  by  the  Indians ;  the  collection,  straitened  as  were 
their  circumstances  at  the  time,  amounted  to  five  pounds. 
The  other  was  for  the  relief  of  William  Moor,  who  had 
two  cows  killed  by  the  falling  of  a  tree ;  three  pounds  and 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  77 

nineteen  shillings  were  received.  It  is  most  evident  from 
these  ancient  records,  tiiat,  whatever  imperfections  ap- 
peared in  the  character  of  the  people,  the  elders  did  not 
suffer  sin  to  pass  unreproved.  Impurity  of  speech  or  act; 
the  circuhition  of  shmderous  reports,  dishonesty,  or, 
neglect  of  social  religious  duties,  were  subjects  of  prompt 
and  faithful  discipline.  ■y 

They  were  pure  Presbyterians,  and  no  people  were  more  \ 
distinguished  for  sound  Christian  doctrine  and  order,  or  \ 
for  a  more  strict  and  inflexible  code  of  morals.  ^ 

On  March  5th,  1729,  the  congregation  experienced  a  I 
heavy  loss  in  the  dpatli  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  McGregor.  He 
died  at  the  age  of  fiity-two.  Habituated  to  hardships  and 
self-denial,  he  was  well  ])repared  to  share  with  his  people 
the  toils,  dangers  and  sacrifice  of  ease  and  comfort  ever 
attendant  upon  a  new  settlement.  It  was  the  custom  at 
that  day,  and  for  thirty  years  afterwards,  for  all  "  able- 
bodied  men  "  to  go  to  church  well  armed,  in  order  to  be 
prepared  to  repel  any  sudden  attack  from  the  Indians, 
and  their  pastor  always  marched  into  his  pulpit  with  his 
gun  ivell  loaded  and  primed*  The  Rev.  Matthew  Clarke  , 
became  the  successor  of  Mr.  McGregor,  and  on  January  | 
9th,  1733,  married,  as  his  third  wife,  his  widow.  He  never 
ate  of  anything  which  had  possessed  animal  life,  and  while 
a  minister  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  as  he  had  served  as  an 
ofificer  in  the  Protestant  army,  and  was  active  in  the  de- 
fence of  Londonderry  during  the  memorable  siege,  his 
martial  spirit  would  not  unfrequently  be  revived.  He 
died  January  25th,  1735,  aged  seventy-six. 

There  were  in  those  days  no  theological  seminaries  in 
America,  and  previously  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Clarke,  the 
people  made  application  to  the  Presbytery  of  Tyrone  for  a 

*  The  Rev.  Zacharv  Walker,  of  Woodbury,  Connecticut,  on  one  Sab- 
bath preaclied  tliree  sermons  and  shot  two  Indians.  He  was  ihe  first 
minister  of  tliat  town.  So,  during  the  eight  years  of  savage  warfare  in 
the  Cumberland  valley,  in  Pennsylvania,  the  Presbyterian  minister,  the 
Rev.  John  Steele,  ''often  exercised  his  ministry  with  his  gun  at  his  side, 
while  the  men  of  his  congregation  had  then  their  weapons  within  their 
reach."  (Chambers'  Tribute,  p.  85.)  The  Norridgewalks  were  taught 
by  the  French  missionaries  to  believe,  that  the  English  murdered  the 
Saviour  of  mankind,  and  the  Indians  would  kill  all  of  them  they  could." 
(Sewall,  p.  317.)  Wolfe's  victory  in  1759  put  a  stop  to  this  savage  car- 
nage, and  after  that  date  garrisons  and  blockhouses  were  not  needed. 


78  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

candidate,  "  a  suitable,  well-qualified,  and  accredited  min- 
ister, to  take  charge  of  them  in  tlie  Lord,  engaging  to  pay 
him  one  hundred  and  forty  pounds  annually,  beside  the 
exj3enses  of  his  voyage,  with  one-half  of  a  home-lot  and  a 
hundred  acre  out-lot,"  as  it  was  then  termed.  The  gover- 
nor of  the  colony  had  then  but  one  hundred  pounds  an- 
nually. This  shows  the  zeal  and  liberality  of  the  early 
settlers  in  supporting  the  gospel.  They  had  been  taught 
the  value  of  divine  ordinances,  and  they  aj)})reciated  them 
by  "honoring  the  Lord  with  their  substance."  On  the 
10th  day  of  October,  1733,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Thompson, 
ordained,  married  and  fully  accredited,  at  twenty-nine 
3'ears  of  age,  was  installed  as  their  pastor.  As  expenses 
attendant  upon  his  installation,  there  were  paid  to  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  LeMercier  and  Moorehead,  and  their  elders, 
£8,  and  £2.  6s.  for  man  and  horses  to  bring  them  from 
and  take  them  back  to  Haverhill,  Massachusetts.  He 
died  September  22d,  1738.  Though  his  ministry  was 
short,  it  was  liighly  acceptable  to  the  people,  and  attended 
with  the  divine  blessing,  tlie  church  being  very  considera- 
bly increased  during  the  period  of  his  connection  with  it.  , 

At  a  sacramental  occasion  in  1734  (only  fifteen  years 
after  the  settlement  of  the  town),  there  were  i)resent  seven 
hundred  communicants.  As  not  a  few  of  these  came  from 
other  congregations,  "  tokens  "  (as  cheap  and  convenient 
little  certificates  of  church  membership,  for  such  they 
were,)  were  dispensed  to  prevent  unworthy  intruders. 

Thursday  before  the  communion  was  observed  as  a 
sacramental  fast  with  much  strictness,  while  preaching  on 
Friday  and  Saturday  and  thanksgiving  on  Monday,  were 
part  of  their  stated  communion  services.  There  would 
sometimes  be  three  or  four  tables,  after  which  a  short 
recess,  then  a  discourse  and  the  usual  devotional  exercises, 
which  were  often  extended  to  sunset. 

"Such  solemn  and  devout  convocations,  such  assem- 
bling of  the  people  for  several  consecutive  daj^s  for  prayer, 
praise  and  preaching ;  if  the  practice  were  revived  by  the 
churches,  would  happily  serve,  it  is  believed,  to  promote 
their  spirituality,  and  bring  down  the  divine  influences  in 
more  copious  effusions."     (Parker.) 

"  The  settlement  continuing  to  receive  accessions  from 
Ireland  and  elsewhere,  and  the  remoter  sections  of  the 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  79 

township  becoming  inhabited,  sundry  persons  in  the 
westerly  part  having  petitioned  for  that  object,  were  set 
off  as  a  religious  society,  and,  in  1739,  were,  by  the  gen- 
eral court,  invested  with  privileges,  and  styled  the  West 
Parish  in  Londonderry. 

"  Rev.  David  McGregor,  son  of  the  Rev.  James  McGregor, 
took  the  pastoral  charge  of  the  newly-formed  congregation. 
He  received  his  literary  and  theological  education  chiefly 
under  the  Rev.  Mr.  Clarke,  his  father's  successor,  and  was 
ordained  in  1736." 

The  East  Parish,  in  1739,  called  the  Rev.  WiUiam  David- 
son. They  gave  him  one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds  as  a 
settlement,  and  the  same  sum  annually  as  his  salary. 
Amidst  all  their  general  prosperity  and  the  enjoyment  of 
the  means  of  grace,  unsanctified  human  nature  began  to 
operate,  and,  at  an  early  day,  harmony  became  impaired 
betAveen  the  two  congregations.  A  number  of  families 
residing  in  the  east  one,  being  dissatisfied  with  Mr.  David- 
son's ministry,  and  particularly  attached  to  Mr.  Mc- 
Gregor, as  he  was  the  son  of  their  former  pastor,  more 
evangelical  in  his  doctrinal  views,  and  a  more  talented 
preacher  than  Mr.  Davidson,  united  with  the  newly-formed 
parish. 

A  change  of  about  a  mile  in  the  site  of  the  West  Church 
induced  about  the  same  number  of  families  (about  fortAO 
to  withdraw  from  the  West  and  unite  with  the  East.  This 
unhappy  division,  which  lasted  for  nearly  forty  years,  was 
productive  of  evils  long  felt  in  the  congregations,  not  only 
occasioning  alienation  of  feeling  and  often  bitter  animosi- 
ties between  the  members  of  these  two  churches,  but  also 
preventing  all  ministerial  and  even  social  intercourse  be- 
tween their  pastors.  The  following  minute  from  the 
records  of  the  session  (of  June  1st,  1743),  may  serve  to 
show  the  want  of  Christian  fellowship  which  then  ex- 
isted : 

''James  Wilson  came  to  the  session  and  desired  to  be 
admitted  to  the  sacrament,  to  which  Mr.  Davidson  told 
him,  with  the  session,  that  we  admitted  none  that  partook 
with  Mr.  McGregor;  and  was  inquired  of  whether  or  not  it 
was  a  personal  quarrel  with  his  minister  that  made  him 
decline  from  him.  He  answered  it  was  not,  but  only  the 
tenents  (tenets)  they  held  up  amongst  them,  and  that  he 


•80  HISTORY    OF    PRKSBYTERIANISM 

would  not  join  with  them  for  the  future,  and  upon  these 
he  got  a  token  of  admission." 

This  alienation  is  further  shewn  by  their  respective 
views  of  the  great  awakening  or  extraordinary  seriousness 
and  attention  to  religion  which,  in  1741,  in  the  days  of  tlie 
Tenants,  of  Edwards,  and  of  Whitefield,  so  extensively 
prevailed  in  this  country,  pervading  New  England  and  ex- 
tending to  this  town.  McGregor  preached  and  entered 
earnestly  into  the  awakening,  and  a  happ}^  addition  was 
made  to  his  church.  Davidson  and  his  church  stood 
aloof  from  all  participation  in  the  work.  The  Rev.  George 
Whitefield  preached  to  a  very  large  collection  of  people  in 
the  open  field,  the  meeting-house  not  being  large  enough 
to  accommodate  them.  "Although  Davidson  and  those  in 
the  Presbyterian  connection  who  sympathized  with  him, 
adhered  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  and  catechisms  in  their 
iamilies,  schools  and  congregations,  yet  in  their  preaching 
they  left  out,  as  has  been  justly  said,  the  distinctive  doc- 
trines of  the  Calvinistic  system,  dwelt  chiefly  on  moral  and 
practical  duties,  were  not  zealous  for  the  conversion  of  sin- 
ners, and  in  their  preaching  and  devotional  services  lacked 
that  unction  and  fervor  which  distinguished  the  advocates, 
promoters  and  subjects  of  the  great  revival." 

The  result  was  that  vital  godliness  greatly  declined  in 
this  churcli,  few  were  added  by  profession,  discipline  was 
much  neglected,  and  the  distinctive  lines  between  the 
€]nirch  and  the  world  were  nearly  obliterated. 

Mr.  McGregor,  vindicating  the  work  from  the  charges  of 
antinomianism  and  fanaticism  {Princess  History),  says: 
"  For  my  own  part,  I  have  seen  little  or  no  appearance  of 
the  groAvth  of  antinomian  errors  or  an3^thing  visionary  or 
-enthusiastic,  either  in  my  own  congregation  or  among  the 
people  in  the  neighborhood  where  I  live.  Indeed,  if  as- 
serting justification  by  faith  alone,  and  denying  it  by  the 
law  as  a  covenant  of  ^^^3rks,  while  the  eternal  obligation  of 
the  law  as  a  rule  of  life  is  strongly  maintained  in  practice 
US  well  as  profession — if  this,  I  say,  be  antinomian  doc- 
trine, then  we  have  a  great  growth  of  antinomianism. 
Again,  if  asserting  the  necessity  of  supernatural  influence 
or  divine  energy  in  conversion,  or  the  reality  of  the  imme- 
diate witnessing  and  sealing  of  the  Spirit  be  enthusiasm, 
then  we  have  a  remarkable  spread  of  enthusiasm ;  and  in 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  81 


these  senses  may  antinomianism  and  enthusiasm  grow 
more  and  more  till  they  overspread  the  whole  land." 

We  now  look  a  little,  on  what  was  farther  done  in  the 
extension  of  Presl^yterianism  during  the  first  twent^^-five 
years  after  the  settlement  of  Denw,  N.  H. 

In  all  towns  where  Presbyterians  mingled  with  the 
natives,  they  had  to  encounter  strong  prejudices,  were 
viewed,  to  some  extent,  as  intruders,  and  were  compelled 
to  support  a  form  of  church  government  and  worship  for 
which  they  had  no  affection.  Consequently,  if  they 
obtained  a  peaceable  settlement  and  were  not  driven  off 
or  expelled,  they  were  in  a  generation  or  two  often  assimi- 
lated to  and  absorl;ed  by  the  overshadowing  influence  of 
the  colonial  religion. 

Hence  their  meeting-houses  in  many  towns  have  passed 
into  the  possession  of  Congregationalists.  These  settle- 
ments were  made  almost  wholly  of  Presbyterians  from  the 
north  of  Ireland,  and  the  Scotch  (excepting  those  who 
went  to  the  Province  of  Maine)  do  not  appear  to  have 
come  into  New  England  in  colonies  until  after  the  middle 
of  this  century. 

At  this  period,  liowever,  ministers  from  the  Kirk,  the  only 
order  of  Presbyterians  then  in  Scotland  (excepting  a  few 
of  the  Reformed)  came  over.  The  minister  of  the  majority 
of  the  votes  of  a  town  was  supported  by  a  parish  tax  col- 
lected by  civil  authority,  and  although  this  was  less  secure 
than  patronage  in  Scotland,  yet  individual  adventurers 
from  British  Presbyteries  were  not  unfrequently  hired  to 
serve  Congregational  societies. 

About  this  period  James  Keith,  John  Campbell,  Hugh 
Campbell,  Hugh  Henry,  John  McKinstry  and  John  Gra- 
ham, as  we  have  seen,  served  as  pastors  in  this  way. 

"  Many  of  the  emigrants  (who  came  to  the  Ba}'  in  and 
before  1633)  had,  while  in  England,  belonged  to  the  con- 
gregation of  the  Rev.  Tliomas  Hooker,  a  preacher  of  great 
celebrity,  who,  to  escape  fines  and  imprisonment  for  non- 
conformity, had  fled  into  Holland.  Being  greatly  attached 
to  him,  at  their  earnest  request  he  came  to  them  and  per- 
suaded Mr.  Samuel  Stone  to  accompany  him  as  an 
assistant.  They  arrived  in  Boston  September  4th,  1633. 
On  October  11th  they  were  ordained  to  their  respective 
ofhces  as  pastor  and  teacher  in  the  church  at  Cambridge 
6 


82  HISTORY   OF    PRESBYTERIANISM 

in  the  new  way.  Finding  himself  overshadowed  by  the 
great  influence  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cotton,  in  1636,  he  (with 
his  whole  church  and  congregation,  consisting  of  about  one 
hundred  persons)  removed  to  Connecticut  and  commenced 
the  settlement  of  Hartford."     (Cam.  Con.  Faith.) 

"  Presbyterianism  has  not  been  without  right  in  Con- 
necticut. The  principal  friends  and  patrons  of  the  colony 
at  the  time  of  its  settlement  were  Presbyterians :  and  so 
were  many  of  those  who  came  over  at  an  early  day. 
Some  of  the  first  ministers  of  this  colony  were  avowed 
Presbyterians.  That  is  such  as  were  Presbyterians  in 
England  from  1572  until  1591.  The  later  Puritan  emigra- 
tion brought  with  it  '  a  leaven  of  Presbyterianism,'  says 
Dr.  Bacon  {Cuntrib.  Hist.  Conn.,  p.  17),  and  its  workings 
are  to  be  traced  in  tlie  Saybrook  Platform.  Under  the 
system  of  church  polity  tliere  defined,  the  consociation 
*  could  be  made,  and  was  made  to  a  great  extent  a  judicial 
and  authoritative  tribunal  (p.  122),  corres})onding  very 
closely  with  the  Presbytery.  In  keeping  with  these  facts, 
the  name  Presbyterian  has  been  applied  very  connnonly  to 
the  churches  of  Connecticut,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion 
it  has  been  affirmed,  upon  high  authority,  that  the  system 
of  church  order  prevailing  among  them  was  really  Presby- 
terianism." (Hist.  Disc.  Ibid.,  p.  63;  Dr.  DwighVs  Travels^ 
vol.  iv.,  p.  410  seq.) 

"  But  the  churches  in  this  State  that  have  been  in  a 
stricter  and  more  usual  sense  Presbyterian  have  never 
been  numerous,  and  they  have  come  into  existence  under 
special  conditions.  In  Voluntown,  now  Sterling,  Wind- 
ham county,  a  church  was  organized  on  the  15th  of 
October,  1723."     (Rev.  Chas.  W.  Baird.) 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Dorrance,  a  native  of  Ireland,  was  set- 
tled there  on  that  day,  and,  on  August  14th,  1749,  a  peti- 
tion from  said  town  was  received  by  the  original  Presby- 
tery at  its  meeting  in  Boston  in  the  LeMercier  Church,  on 
which  he  and  his  congregation  was  received.  He  was  dis- 
missed in  1770,  and  the  church  became  Congregational 
June  30th,  1779.  Of  this  Presbytery  he  was  probably 
during  its  existence  a  member.  He  died  there  on  Novem- 
ber 12th,  1775,  in  the  ninetieth  year  of  his  age  and  the 
forty-seventh  of  his  ministry.  Peters  (Hist,  of  Conn.)  says : 
*'In  Voluntown  there  is  one  Presbyterian  parish.    This 


IN    NEW    KNGI,AXD.  83 

sect  has  mot  with  ns  little  Christian  charity  and  humanity 
in  this  hairbrained  community  as  the  Anabaptists,  Qua- 
kers and  Churchmen.  •  The  '  sober  dissenters  '  of  this  town 
(as  they  style  themselves)  will  not  attend  the  funeral  of  a 
Presbyterian  "  (p.  162).  This  might,  however,  apply  only 
to  the  state  of  that  community  in  the  time  of  his  succes- 
sor, the  Rev.  Mr.  Gilmore. 

Of  all  the  inductions  of  Presbj^terian  ministers  to  serve 
Cono;regationalist  societies,  that  which  as  the  occasion  was 
procluctive  of  the  most  extensive  consequences  for  evil  was 
the  settlement  of  the  Rev.  James  Hillliouse  with  the  second 
parish  of  New  London  (called  Montville)  in  that  colony  on 
October  3d,  1722. 

For  several  years  matters  appear  to  have  prospered  with 
him,  but  whether  his  doctrine  did  not  suit  his  audience  or 
his  practice  became  improper,  does  not  appear.  For  some 
cause,  however,  he  became  unpopular  with  his  people. 
He  also  ]n'osecuted  one  of  his  neighbors  and  was  non- 
suited. The  power  of  his  employers  was  now  exerted  to 
remove  him.  The  people  shut  the  church  door  on  him 
and  witliheld  his  salary.  "A  Council,"  not  "  mutual,"  but 
"  ex  parte,"  was  held,  and  instead  of  advising  him  to  ask  for 
a  dismission,  they  in  1735  '^ordered  him  to  resign  his 
office." 

This  he  did  not  do ;  but  continued  to  preach  and  de- 
mand his  salary. 

To  protect  himself  ecclesiastically,  he  applied  to  the 
Presbytery  for  admission. 

Excitement  became  rife.  The  correspondence  between 
the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  ministers  of  an  offi- 
cial and  especially  of  a  fraternal  character  was  now  rup- 
tured, by  specific  view^s  of  church  power. 

If  the  Presbyter}"  should  admit  him,  while  "ordered" 
by  a  council  to  resign  his  office,  a  par  value  would  not  be 
placed  on  their  standing  and  authority. 

On  this  question  the  Presbytery  divided. 

A  majority  were  for  rejecting  him,  but  at  a  meeting  held 
in  1736,  when  but  five  ministers  were  present,  by  the  aid 
of  the  votes  of  ruling  elders,  Rev.  Messrs.  Moorehead 
and  Harvey  had  him  admitted  by  a  majority  of  one  vote. 

Against  his  admission,  the  three  other  ministers  then 
present  protested.     They  could  only  protest — not  appeal, 


84  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

for  there  was  not  until  nearly  forty  years  after,  any  synod 
nearer  than  Ireland,  with  which  they  had  any  connection. 

Mr,  Moorehead  maintained,  that  -though  hired  by  Con- 
gregationalists,  as  he  was  not  ordained  b}^  any  of  their 
councils,  he  was  not  amenable  or  subject  to  them. 

He  prosecuted  his  parish  for  his  salary,  lost  his  case  in 
court,  and  on  June  28th,  1737,  "  he  was  cast  out  and  de- 
posed (says  LeMercier)  by  a  council,  who  also  appointed 
another  in  his  stead." 

From  1736,  j)eace  and  the  Presbytery  shook  hands  and 
parted.  Recourse  was  had,  not  only  to  vindications  be- 
fore the  Presbytery,  but  criminations  and  recriminations 
-were  spread  before  the  people,  by  both  the  puli)it  and  the 
I^ress.  Among  those,  thus  alienated,  were  the  pastors  of 
the  Boston  churches.  LeMercier  advocated  the  expe- 
dienc}^,  if  not  the  principle  of  recognizing  the  action  of  the 
council  as  valid — while  Moorehead  maintained,  that  its 
*'  power  (as  exercised  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Hillhouse)  was 
Jesuiticaland  usurped" — and  that  as  he  had  received  his 
ordination  before  he  came  to  the  colonies,  the  Presbytery, 
in  1736,  "received  him  as  a  member  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland." 

From  the  pulpit  also,  evidences  of  alienation  were  pre- 
sented, and  from  Luke  xvi.  15,  Mr.  Moorehead  preached 
textually  to  the  Presbytery.  This  of  course  produced  deep 
feeling,  which  was  increased  by  Mr.  Hillhouse,  who  per- 
sistently pressed  his  admission  on  the  court. 

Such  was  the  furor  of  the  contest,  that,  in  October,  1736, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Harvey  was  suspended  by  Presbytery — 
while  the  Rev.  Mr.  'Moorehead  was  twice  rebuked  and 
finally  suspended  from  office  and  emolument.  When  un- 
der process,  "  both  Mr.  jMoorehead  and  Mr.  Harvey  were 
permitted  to  give  their  reasons  and  defend  their  course 
before  Presbytery."  Besides  Moorehead,  Harvey,  and 
Hillhouse,  there  were  in  and  remained  in  Presbytery, 
five  ministers — LeMercier,  Thompson,  Wilson,  McLena- 
lian,  and  Johnston. 

The  Presbytery  which  met  in  Boston  Oct.,  1736  (that  is, 
these  five  clergymen  with  their  elders),  forbade  their 
members  to  preach  or  exercise  any  ministerial  office  (says 
Le^Mercier)  within  the  bounds  of  the  other  ministers, 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  Presbytery — that  is,  they 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  85 

were  not  to  preach  in  the  pulpits  of  Mr.  Moorehead  or 
Mr.  Harvey,  and  he  farther  sa3^s,  "  as  the  ministers  of  the 
town  of  Boston  liave  been  always  willing  to  live  in  friend- 
ship with  the  Presbyterian  ministers,  and  to  shew  their 
regard  for  good  order,  they  have  not  preached  for  '  John 
Presbyter,'  since  they  heard  that  he  had  been  suspended 
by  the  Presbytery. 

"To  receive  Mr.  Hillhouse  would  make  Presbytery 
very  ridiculous  in  the  e3^es  of  the  people  of  New  Eng- 
land." (Remarks  LeAIercier,  p.  14.)  Thus,  "  the  be- 
ginning of  strife  was  like  the  letting  out  of  water,"  and 
the  Presbyterial  harmony,  which  it  had  required  years  to 
establish  and  maintain,  was  now  forever  broken  by  parti- 
san passion. 

While  "  Mr.  Hillhouse  forced  himself  into  the  Presby- 
tery, not  at  all  to  the  satisfoction  of  its  members  (says 
LeM.)  this  was  not  the  only  ground  of  grievance  of  which 
the  majority  complained,  and  which  made  the  separation 
final. 

"  In  the  Presbj^tery  held  in  Boston  in  Oct.,  1736,  when 
the  names  of  the  several  members  were  called,  among  the 
rest  was  that  of  Mr.  David  McGregore.  'As  he  had  never 
sat  with  them  before,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Rutherford  desired  to 
know  how  he  became  a  member,  and  who  gave  the  or- 
dainers  power  to  do  it?  As  the  major  part  desired  to 
be  satisfied  in  this,  before  they  admitted  Mr.  McGregore, 
Mr.  Moorehead,  previously  ordainer,  and  now  moderator, 
not  giving  a  satisfactory  answer,  the  majority  denied  Mr. 
McGregore's  right  to  a  seat.  After  much  debate  and  some 
fruitless  propositions,  Messrs.  Moorehead  and  Harvey  de- 
clared, that  they  would  not  sit  in  Presbytery  with  the 
rest,  if  Mr.  McGregore  was  not  permitted  to  vote."  This 
being  still  refused,  "  Mr.  Moorehead  left  the  chair  and  the 
meeting-house  (the  French  one),  followed  by  Harvey  and 
McGregore."  All  solicitation  was  in  vain.  "They  re- 
fused to  return.  Perhaps  they  resolved  to  set  up  a  Presby- 
tery of  their  own  to  screen  themselves  from  justly  deserved 
censure."  {LeM.)  This  was.  a  sorrowful  spectacle,  that 
these  few  ministers,  nearly  all  of  the  same  race,  from  lands 
of  martyred  ancestries,  professedh-  believing  the  same 
things,  under  the  same  vows  and  Avalking  by  the  same 
rule,  should  now  utterly  'fall  out  by  the  way.'    Yet  'the 


86  '  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

contention  was  so  sharp  between  them,  that  they  departed 
asunder  the  one  from  the  other,'  and  became  'two  bands.' 
Moorehead  and  Harvey  (and  possibly  some  others)  had, 
in  1736,  ordained  and  received  Mr.  McGregore  when  ob- 
viously but  a  minority  of  the  Presbytery  ( probably  owing 
to  their  distance  from  Boston)  were  in  attendance.  To 
the  suspension,  which  followed,  they  were  probably 
brought,  by  the  impulsive  temperament  of  Mr.  Moorehead 
and  his  strong  attachment  to  his  countrymen,  while  Le- 
Mercier's  sympathies  pro))ably  were  somewhat  misled,  by 
his  early  associations  and  then  present  surroundings  of 
cliurch  and  state.  Tlie  unpleasant  bearing  of  Mr.  Hill- 
house  also  made  his  fellowship  with  the  Presbytery  to  be 
of  a  short  duration,  and  it  did  not  nullify  the  action  of  the 
council  in  his  case. 

Owing  to  the  widel}^  scattered  position  of  the  members 
of  Presbytery,  and  consequent  probable  non-appearance  at 
stated  occasional  meetings,  especially  in  winter,  we  can 
account  for  the  absence  of  a  majority  of  the  ministers  at 
the  ordination  of  Mr.  David  McGregore  (who  had  been  pre- 
viously licensed) ;  but  why  the  Rev,  Mr.  Rutherford,  "  who 
was  of  an  amiable  and  excellent  disposition,"  should  aim 
to  exclude  him,  does  not  so  fully  appear.  The  young  man 
was  much  beloved,  eminently  popular  and  useful.  Per- 
haps the  fact  that  he  had  not  graduated  at  any  college  may 
in  part  account  for  the  opposition  of  the  majority  of  the 
ministers.  Judging  from  the  part  which  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Rutherford  took  in  excluding  him,  it  is  not  easy  to  deter- 
mine whether  he  intensely  desired  to  have  order  observed 
to  the  letter,  or  acted  from  a  love  of  pre-eminence,  or  both. 
He  lived  on  the  then  most  remote  borders  of  civilization  in 
the  Province  of  Maine.  To  the  shores  of  the  Kennebec 
Mr.  Robert  Temple,  from  Ireland',  had  brought  a  colony 
in  1719  or  1720. 

While  some  of  them,  discouraged  by  the  climate  and 
the  wilderness,  had  sought  in  the  middle  or  southern  colo- 
nies a  more  pleasant  home,  others  remained  and  had  occa- 
sional supplies  of  preaching. 

In  Scarboro,  Maine,  in  1720,  the  Rev.  Hugh  Campbell, 
from  Scotland,  preached.  He  remained  only  about  one 
year,  and  was  in  June,  1722,  succeeded  by  his  countryman, 
the  Rev.  Hugh  Henry,  who,  although  he  was  not  formally 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  87 

settled,  in  1725  sued  the  town  for  his  salary,  which  was 
seventy  pounds  per  annum,  but  did  not  recover  it. 

As  that  was  the  age  of  colonies  from  Ireland  to  America, 
we  find  that  in  1729  a  Colonel  Dunbar  brought  over  a  num- 
ber of  Presbyterians.  "  His  colonists  (we  again  refer  to  the 
Hon.  Wm.  Willis)  in  two  years  amounted  to  more  than 
one  hundred  and  twenty  families,  and  with  the  first  of 
these  he  brought  as  minister  the  Rev.  Robert  Rutherford." 
Massachusetts,  wdiich  then  claimed  jurisdiction  over  the 
Province  of  Maine,  protested  against  his  usurpations,  and 
his  government  over  his  colony  ceased,  for  he  was  driven 
out  by  the  forces  of  the  former  in  August,  1732.  He,  how- 
ever, when  in  possession,  had  ceded  to  his  countrymen  the 
towns  of  Bristol,  Noblesboro  and  Boothbay.  He  returned 
to  Britain  in  1737. 

Of  Andrew  Reed,  a  principal  settler  in  Townsend,  it  is 
said  that  for  a  whole  winter  (that  of  1730)  he  read  his  Bible 
and  cut  and  piled  cord  wood  alone,  exposed  at  all  times  to 
the  savages,  and  when  asked  on  his  return,  "  Were  you  not 
afraid?"  answered,  "Had  not  I  the  Bible  with  me?  I 
was  neither  alone,  nor  afraid  of  the  Indians."  (S.,  p.  264.) 
Of  the  descendants  of  tlie  Dunbar  emigration,  says  Sewall, 
p.  263,  "  they  are  intelligent,  enterprising,  fearless,  thrifty, 
peaceful  and  vigorous." 

Waldo,  who  had,  as  the  agent  of  Massachusetts,  appeared 
successfully  against  Dunbar  in  England,  next  brought  over 
emigrants  to  Maine.  Twenty-seven  families  of  Scotch 
descent  from  the  north  of  Ireland,  who  in  1735  arrived 
under  his  direction,  were  each  by  him  furnished  with  one 
hundred  acres  of  land  on  the  banks  of  the  river  St.  George, 
in  the  town  of  Warren.. 

Rutherford  had  thus  from  his  arrival  an  ample  field  of 
labor.  "  He  preached  in  Bristol  four  or  five  years."  (Wil- 
liamson's Maine.)  To  assist  him,  the  Rev.  William  Mc- 
Clenahan  came  over  about  1734.  Neither  of  them,  how- 
ever, appears  to  have  had  in  Maine  a  permanent  settlement. 
An  increase  to  their  numbers,  in  this  region,  occurred  in 
this  way:  About  1740  the  "Grand  Design,"  with  passen- 
gers for  Pennsylvania,  was  wrecked  on  Mount  Desert,  and 
many  of  the  survivors  settled  in  Warren,  Pemaquid, 
Sheepscot  and  Damariscotta. 

W^hile,  at  this  date,  it  is  supposed  that  no  part  of  New 


BS  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

England  was  so  strongly  Presbyterian  as  was  the  country 
lying  between  the  Kennebec  and  Penobscot,  yet,  to  effect 
settlements  of  this  church  order  was  difficult,  owing  to  the 
tenacity  or  obstinacy  of  the  Congregationalists  in  the  dif- 
ferent parishes.  They  seldom  became  Presbyterians,  while 
the  others  frequently  united  with  tliem. 

From  1734  till  near  1737  the  Rev.  R.  Rutherford  preached 
chiefly  at  Pemaquid,  and  in  1737  he  preached  at  Bruns- 
wick, where  he  was  settled  as  the  first  minister  of  that 
town,  and  continued  there  till  1742.  (Williamson.)  In 
1747  Mr.  Rutherford  was  chaplain  in  Henderson's  Fort,  at 
Pleasant  Point.  He  asked  a  suitable  sum  for  his  table 
expenses  and  was  refused.  Perhaps  his  being  a  Presbyte- 
rian as  well  as  a  friend  of  Governor  Dunbar's  operated 
against  him.  (P.  59,  Eaton.)  He  died  at  Thomaston  in 
October,  1756,  aired  68  years. 

The  Rev.  William  McClenahan  was  invited  in  1734  to 
settle  at  Georgetown,  but  the  Congregationalists  kept  up  a 
quarrel  for  the  two  years  in  which  he  occasionally  preached 
to  them.  On  the  15th  of  November,  1736,  he  was  installed 
at  Cape  Elizabeth,  as  appears  by  the  "Journal  of  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Smith,  of  Falmouth,"  who  opposed  his  usefulness. 
His  temperament  was  such  that  he  was  often  in  difficulty, 
and  in  this  place  "  he  stirred  up  a  controversy  which  ended 
in  his  dismission,"  and  he  returned  to  Georgetown  and 
vicinity.  ' 

Cape  Elizabeth  had  been  partly  settled  by  the  McGregore 
and  Boyd  emigration,  and  now,  seventeen  years  afterwards, 
the  number  of  families  which  had  settled  at  Porpooduc,  on 
Casco  Bay,  in  Falmouth  Township,  is  supposed  to  have 
been  about  twenty,  who,  although  they  at  first  enjoyed  the 
services  of  the  Rev.  William  Cornwall,  and  after  he  had 
left  them  the  labors  of  the  Rev.  ^Ir.  Woodside — still,  such 
were  their  disadvantages  civilly  as  well  as  physically  that 
tlie}^  were  unable  long  to  sustain  ordinances. 

Congregationalism  obtained  the  ascendency  in  the  town, 
and  now  after  some  twenty  years  of  struggle  for  a  perma- 
nent existence,  with  the  departure  of  Mr.  McClenahan  Pres- 
byterianism  became  prostrated,  so  that  when,  some  thirty 
years  later,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman  preached  a  Sabbath 
or  two  in  the  vicinity,  while  his  teachings  and  usages  in 
worship  were  hailed  with  great  delight  by  the  aged,  yet 


IN    NEW   ENGLA?,-D.  89 

the  Presbyterian  element  had  become  nearly  extinct,  either 
by  removal  or  by  conformity  to  other  usages,  or  by  both. 

We  have,  then,  the  early  decay  of  Presbyterianism  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Casco  Bay,  and  it  never  revived. 

Midnight  violence  was  not  probably  employed  towards 
this  people,  as  it  was  about  this  date  to  the  church  in 
Worcester,  yet,  from  the  "Journal  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Smith,  of  Falmouth,"  and  other  sources,  we  find  that  they 
were  treated  in  an  unkind  manner,  on  account  of  their 
views  of  church  government  and  Christian  worship. 

The  fragmentary  and  opposing  condition  of  "the  op- 
pressed Irish  brethren "  and  their  ministry  at  this  time, 
from  173G  till  1740,  and  later  in  New  England,  was  humil- 
iating and  trying  to  those  who  were  truly  pious.  They 
had  no  connection  with  the  Presb3^terics  and  Synods  which 
had  since  the  commencement  of  that  century  sprung  up 
in  the  central  colonies,  and  they  had  no  Synod  with  which 
they  were  identified  nearer  than  Ireland  to  which  they 
could  go  by  review  or  appeal.  Consequently,  order  and 
peace  in  their  churches  suHfered  extensively.  Several 
cases  were,  by  reference,  from  time  to  time  carried  to  tb.e 
Synod  of  Ulster.  After  Moorehead  and  Harvey  Avere  (in 
1737)  suspended  and  McGregore's  ordination  was  ignored, 
Rutherford,  LeMercier,  Thomson,  Wilson,  McClenahan 
and  Johnston  (their  congregations  where  they  were  settled 
pastors,  and  those  adhering  to  them  in  the  varied  vacan- 
cies and  settlements)  constituted  and  perpetuated  the 
Presbytery  of  Londonderry. 

Notwithstanding  the  destruction  of  their  house  of  wor- 
ship, the  Presbyterians  in  Worcester  continued  for  some 
years  to  support  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  William  Johnston. 
The  date  of  his  ordination  does  not  appear.  It  took  place 
in  Worcester  between  1729  and  1786,  for  in  1736  his  con- 
gregation appealed  "to  the  justice  of  their  fellow-townsmen 
for  relief  from  "  the  parish-tax  for  the  support  of  the  Con- 
gregationalist  minister,  and  while,  instead  of  receiving 
equity,  they  were  answered  with  "  subtilty  and  illiberal- 
ity,"  they  were  also  told  that  "  his  ordination  was  disor- 
derly." (Lincoln.)  How  long  he  labored  there  is  not 
known,  but  his  i)eople,  doubtless,  became  weary  of  sup- 
porting both  their  OAvn  pastor  and  the  parish  minister, 
until,  owing  to  their  discouragement  and  general  disper- 


90  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

sion,  he  had  finally  to  leave  them.  Their  church  organi- 
zation as  Presbyterians  ceased  within  twenty-five  years 
of  their  first  settlement  in  the  town. 

If  toleration  to  erect  their  house  of  worship  had  been 
allowed  to  them,  they  would  probably,  in  a  few  years, 
have  become  "  the  church  of  the  parish,"  instead  of  being 
the  occupants  of  the  "  old  garrison-house."  Their  case 
solves  a  problem  on  which  much  speculation  has  existed, 
that  is,  the  harmonious  co-habitation  of  Presbyterianism 
and  Congregationalism. 

Many  persons  imagine  that  they  are  similar,  or,  as  they 
say,  "  there  is  between  them  only  a  little  diflf'erence,  only 
a  little  about  church  government — and  they  are  so  nearly 
identical  as  mutually  to  support  each  other,"  while  in 
reality  they  are  irreconcilably  antagonistical.  "  Obey  them 
that  have' the  rule  over  you  and  submit  yourselves,  for 
they  watch  for  your  souls,  as  they  that  must  give  an  ac- 
count " — first  to  the  Presbytery,  and  finally  to  "  the  chief 
Shepherd,"  is  essentially  and  totally  difierent  from,  "  Go 
to,  let  us,"  or,  that,  "all  church  power  resides  in  the 
church,  and  not  in  church  officers ;  and  resides  in  each 
particular  church  directly  and  originally,  by  virtue  of  the 
express  or  implied  compact  of  its  members."  So  it  was 
then  in  New  England  between  these  two  forms  of  church 
government.     So  it  is  now,  and  ever  must  be. 

They  are  distinct  species,  radically  different  and  essen- 
tially opposed  to  each  other.  Consequently,  so  long  as 
any  congregations  were  kept  purely  Presbyterian,  they 
prospered  as  such,  and  just  so  soon  as  this  form  of  regimen 
was  abated  or  ignored,  Congregationalism  controlled  the 
parish. 

We  have  in  Milford,  New  Haven  county,  one  of  those 
churches,  which  came  to  Presbyterianism.  The  Rev. 
Samuel  Whittlesey  was  settled  here  in  December,  1737, 
and  "  regarded  as  unsound  in  doctrine  "  by  a  considerable 
minority  of  the  people,  who  professed  themselves  to  be 
Presbyterians  according  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  they 
left  the  State  religion,  and  the  Presbytery  of  New  Bruns- 
wick took  them  under  its  care.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Find- 
ley,  afterwards  President  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
was  sent  to  preach  to  them.  But  the  congregation  had 
not  obtained  recognition,  either  by  the  civil  or  ecclesiasti- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  91 

cal  authorities  as  a  religious  society ;  and  for  the  offence 
of  preaching  to  them,  the  Doctor  was  indicted,  arrested 
and  sentenced  to  be  transported,  as  a  vagrant  and  a  dis- 
turber of  the  public  peace,  out  of  the  colony. 

In  1747  Mr.  Job  Prudden  was  by  the  same  Presbytery 
ordained  and  installed  their  pastor.  The  people,  however, 
continued  to  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  parish  minis- 
ter. The  State,  while  it  then  exempted  from  such  taxa- 
tion certain  religious  societies,  duly  authorized  to  have 
worship  in  their  own  way,  refused  to  exempt  seceding 
Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians.  In  1750  the}^  were 
released  from  their  burden  ;  ten  years  later  they  obtained 
an  incorporation  from  the  Legislature  as  the  second  eccle- 
siastical society  in  Milford,  and  their  connection  with 
Presbytery  ceased.  (Trumbull,  Hist.  Conn.,  vol.  2,  pp.  325- 
839.)  Prudden  was  a  laborious,  prudent  and  faithful  pas- 
tor, sound  in  doctrine  and  experimental  in  his  preaching. 
His  talents,  meekness  and  piety,  gave  universal  satisfac- 
tion to  his  people.  He  died  June  24th,  1774.  (B.)  Cases 
of  such  expediency  are  relatively  numerous. 

Not  onl}^  Porpooduc  and  Worcester  but  also  Chester  in 
New  Hampshire  now  began  to  manifest  the  truth  of  this 
position.  This  town,  contiguous  to  Londonderry,  was 
settled  first  by  Presbyterians,  and  from  1730  till  1734  they 
had  the  services  of  the  Rev.  Moses  Hale  in  the  Congrega- 
tional way,  as  the  parish  minister,  some  of  the  townsmen 
who  came  to  it  from  time  to  time  being  of  that  order. 

In  1734,  however,  the  Presbyterians  finding  themselves 
able  to  support  him,  had  the  Rev.  John  Wilson"^  settled 
over  them,  "after  the  rules  of  the  Church  of  Scotland." 

In  1736,  after  resisting,  as  far  as  practicable,  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Rev.  Ebenezer  Flagg,  as  a  Congregationalist 
minister  there,  the  Presbyterians  were  compelled  by  law 
to  support  him  also.  Many  of  them  refused  to  pay  the 
tax  for  his  support.  For  this  two  of  them,  James  Camp- 
bell and  Thomas  Tolford,  were  put  in  jail  at  Exeter,  by 

*  His  father,  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  came  from  Ireland,  and  was  re- 
ceived by  the  Synod  of  Phihidelphia  in  1729.  *'  On  January  27th,  1730, 
the  Presbytery  of  Newcastle  received  a  letter  from  Armagh  Presbytery 
concerning  him,  and  they  resolved  not  to  employ  him.  He  removed 
soon  after  to  Boston,  and  died  there  on  January  6tii,  1733,  aged  sixty- 
six  years."     (W.) 


92  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  town  collector.  They  afterwards  obtained  a  decision 
in  law  in  their  favor  and  were  released.  Taking-  encour- 
agement from  this,  the  Presbyterians,  in  1738,  erected  a 
raeeting-hoiise,  and  persevering  in  sustaining  the  pastor 
and  worship  of  their  choice,  they,  by  importuning  the 
Legislature,  were,  in  1740,  allowed  corporate  powers,  and 
after  this  date  separate  congregations  (one  of  each  order) 
were  maintained  in  Chester  for  many  years.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Wilson  preached  in  this  town  for  forty-five  years. 
(N.  H.  Gaz.)  This  case  also  fairly  illustrates  the  irrecon- 
cilable nature  of  these  two  systems  of  church  government, 
and  things  which  differ  should  always  be  distinguished. 

In  doctrine^  at  this  date,  Presbyterianism  and  New  Eng- 
land Congregationalism  differed  very  little,  as  the  latter 
was,  as  yet,  Calvinistic  in  her  theology.*  The  New  Eng- 
land Primer  was  the  basis  of  instruction  in  the  pulpits,  in 
the  family  and  in  the  daily  schools.  Witness  Prince's 
Thursday  lectures  on  the  Shorter  Catechism,  in  the  Old 
South  Church  in  Boston,  for  several  years. 

In  worshij^  the  difference  became  increasingly  greater 
with  time.  The  Presbyterians,  now  expatriated  from  their 
native  homes,  had  for  above  two  generations  cherished 
with  sacred  affection  the  songs  of  Zion,  and  sang  in  their 
families  and  churches  only  the  book  of  Psalms,  in  the 
version  appointed  (to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  poetry) 
by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  to  be 
sung  by  her  congregations.  This  version  had  been,  after 
careful  examination  by  her  Presbyteries,  adopted  and  ex- 
clusively authorized  by  the  Kirk  on  May  1st,  1650. 

In  later  times,  by  ignorance,  prejudice  and  bigotry,  it 
has  been  called  "  Rouse,"  because  many  of  the  psalms 
were,  after  revision,  adopted  from  his  metrical  translation 
of  a  part  of  the  Psalter.  While  the  Pilgrims  had  brouglit 
with  them  to  Plymouth  Rock,  in  1620,  Ainsworth's  ver- 
sion ;  and  the  Puritans  had,  with  their  Episcopal  service, 
brought  the  version  of  Hopkins  and  Sterphold  to  Shaw- 
mut  in  1630,  when  these  last  turned  a  somersault;  in  1636 
the  Rev.  Messrs.  Mather,  Eliot  and  Weld  were  appointed 
to  make  a  new  version,  which  they  completed  in  lour 
years.  To  print  this,  the  first  press  was  brought  to  the 
colony. 

After  the  Freeman's  oath  and  an  almanac,  their  version 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  93 

of  the  Psalms  was  published  in  1640,  and  was  the  first 
book  printed  in  this  part  of  North  America,  books  having 
been  previous!}^  printed  in  IMexico.     (Thomas.) 

This  version  was  called  "the  Bay  State  Psalm-Book." 
It  passed  through  at  least  eighty-six  editions  before  it 
was,  in  the  next  century,  supplanted  by  "  the  Psalms  of 
David,  imitated  in  the  language  of  the  New  Testament  by 
Isaac  Watts,  D.  D."  The  matter  which  men  employ  in 
praise  to  God  often,  or  usually,  forms  a  correct  index  of 
their  acquaintance  with  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  and 
of  their  living  under  "  the  power  of  an  endless  life,"  or 
otherwise.  Hence,  tersely  said  Matthew  Henry,  "  con- 
verting grace  makes  men  very  fond  of  the  Psalms  of 
David."  The  Puritans  in  the  course  of  a  century  added 
to  this  version  of  the  Psalms  several  pieces  from  the  other 
scriptures,  susceptible  of  a  poetical  rendering,  and  when 
it  was  reprinted  in  Scotland  these  poems  were  bound  up 
with  the  Bible  and  with  the  Psalms.  The  title-page  might 
shock  the  nervous  system  of  the  devotees  of  modern  "  cul- 
ture," and  runs  thus,  as  I  have  copied  it  from  a  Bible 
printed  in  1755 :  "  The  psalms,  hymns  and  spiritual  songs 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  iaithfulh^  translated  into 
Enghsh  metre,  for  the  use,  edification  and  comfort  of  the 
saints,  in  public  and  in  private,  especiallv  in  New  Eng- 
land, 2  Tim.  iii.  16,  17;  CoL  iii.  16;  Epln  v.  18,  19;  Jas. 
V.  13.  The  twentieth  edition,  Edinburgh,  printed  by 
Adrian  AVatkins,  His  Majesty's  Printer,  1754."  If  our 
modern  sentimental  New  England  hymnologists,  per- 
meated with  "  culture,"  will  condescend  to  read  this  title, 
I  fear  they  might  in  future  swear  by  Darwin. 

A  copy  of  the  second  edition  is  preserved  in  the  library 
of  Harvard  College.  But  two  copies  of  the  first  edition  are 
known  to  be  in  existence,  and  of  it  eighty-six  or  more  edi- 
tions were  published.  Destitute  as  it  would  now  be  con- 
sidered of  elegance,  it  formed  the  matter  of  praise  to  the 
pious  Congregational ists  in  New  England  for  generations, 
and  of  it  the  immortal  Jonathan  Edwards  said  in  1735 : 
"  God  was  then  served  in  our  psalmody."  But  the  mental 
instability  incident  to,  or  inherent  in  Congregationalism, 
which  that  good  man  deplored  in  1737,  induced  the  minis- 
ters of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  to  agitate  the  setting  aside  of  this 
version  and  the  introduction  of  that  of  "  Tate  and  Brady," 
which  had  been  first  published  in  London  in  1698. 


94  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

The  question  of  the  identity  of  these  two  species  of 
church  government  in  discijjliMe  was  that  on  which,  in 
1736,  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry  was  ruinously  di- 
vided— the  one  part  recognizing  the  action  of  a  council  as 
right  in  suspending  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hillhouse  from  the  minis- 
try and  compelling  him  to  leave  his  pastoral  charge,  the 
other  considering  it  "  a  Jesuitical  "  transaction. 

To  "the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  to  the  "offering"  of  a 
"  pure  "  worship  to  Jehovah^  to  the  purity  and  increase  of 
the  church  of  Christ,  it  would,  under  the  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  through  "the  word,"  prove  an  inestimable 
blessing  if  tliese  radical  landmarks  were  understandingly 
observed  throughout  Christendom. 

Men  would  then  walk  together  only  so  far  as  they  were 
agreed,  and  our  modern  Joab  and  Amasa  charity,  "Art 
thou  in  health,  my  brother?"  and  then  stab  "him  under 
the  fifth  rib,"  would,  like  Adam,  run  and  hide.  The  ten- 
dency now  is  in  an  opposite  direction. 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  95 


CHAPTER  III. 

1718-1743 — A  thrifty  branch — Practical  Godliness — Irregularities — 
Sessional  Records  burnt — An  increase — Blandford  largely  Irish — Re- 
ligious Yicis=:itudes — Wliitefield — Tennant — Davenport — An  Earth- 
quake in  1727 — Alarm  wore  oli^ — Novelty  and  Eloquence  of  White- 
field — "Aj)piauded  by  about  one-fifth  of  the  Clergymen  of  I*New  Eng- 
land"—  Wondrous  work  —  An  unfruitful  ministry  —  Aroused — 
Prompted — Edwards  at  Enfield — "  Shy  of  it '' — Communion  four 
times  each  year  in  Moorehead's  Church — Whitefield  assisted  him 
once — "  Rotation  " — Stood  aloof — Irregularities — Declension — Relig- 
ion, what  it  became  then — Discipline  neglected — A  dead  letter — 
Churches  of  New  England  before  *' the  awakening" — Vitalizing  in- 
structions of  Edwards — "On  their  lees  " — A  dull  routine — Sceptical — 
"The  Church  of  the  Parish" — Trances  and  revelations — The  Scrip- 
tures a  dead  letter — Sci-eaming — Paintings — Conversion — Psalms  set 
aside  by  Davenport — ]\len  less  careful — "Se[)aratists" — Benjamin 
Franklin — Turnell's  dialogue — Dr.  Coleman — Caldwell — Letters  to 
Scotland — Antinomianism — Attestations  to  the  revival — Harvard 
College,  Professors  of,  against  it — Retractions — Presbytery  prospered 
in  some  towns — Churches  formed — The  Press  not  employed  by  Pres- 
byterians, except  by  LeMercier — "  The  wrath  of  man." 

Such  was  then  the  condition  of  the  Presbyterian  churches 
ecclesiastically  in  New  England  at  the  end  of  the  first 
quarter  of  a  century  after  the  emigration  of  1718. 

Thc}^  continued  separated  from  Congregationalism,  and 
a  two-thirds  majority  of  their  Presbytery  had  (by  an  abuse 
of  authority)  suspended  the  others  from  their  ministry. 
To  them,  however,  their  people  remained  attached,  and  in 
a  few  years  a  more  thrifty  branch  sprang  up  in  the  form 
of  a  Presbytery.  With  the  exception  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Rutherford,  who  was  suspected  of  ''new  light,"  the  minis- 
ters appear  to  have  all  been  doctrinally  sound  according  to 
the  Westminster  Standards.  In  practical  godliness  they 
were  generally  pre-eminent.  In  their  attendance  on  the 
means  of  grace,  in  private  and  in  public,  the  people  were 
punctual  and  exemplary,  as  we  see  abundantly  shewn 
during  this  period  by  the  history  of  the  church  in  London- 


96  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

derry,  N.  H.  It  must  not,  however,  be  concealed  that  not 
a  few  of  them  mani feasted  irregularities  of  a  criminal 
character  in  3^outh,  and  brougl^it  upon  themselves  the 
discredit  of  discii)line  by  their  sessions — as  well  as  a  sense 
of  criminality  and  shame,  which  memory  preserves  and 
time  cannot  obliterate. 

In  one  church  at  least  so  numerous  were  the  records  of 
antenuptial  crimes  that  the  minutes  of  the  session,  even 
when  wrongfully  obtained,  were  by  an  Unitarian  pastor 
favored  (like  Huss  and  Jerome  of -Prague)  with  "  a  warm  re- 
ception." Tlie  "  culture  "  of  the  nineteenth  century  de- 
manded this. 

Beside  those  arising  to  them  annually  from  their  own 
youth,  each  year  brought  to  their  churches  from  their  na- 
tive lands  an  increase  of  membership.  In  1741  the  Rev. 
William  ^IcClenahan  left  the  Province  of  Maine  and  came 
to  Blandford,  ]Mass.,  previously  called  New  Glasgow,  where 
lie  was  afterward  settled.  A  church  had  been  organized 
there  in  1735  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Prince,  afterwards  pas- 
tor of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston.  But  the  people 
were  nearly  all  Irish,  and  after  the  incorporation  of  the 
town  on  April  10th,  1741,  they  determined  to  have  a 
Presbyterian  minister.    . 

Having  thus  seen  the  condition  of  these  "  oppressed 
Irish  brethren  "  during  the  last  few  years  of  the  first  quar- 
ter of  a  century  of  their  residence  in  New  England,  we 
now  turn  to  some  of  the  religious  vicissitudes  through 
wliich  thc}^  })assed,  induced  by  their  surroundings. 

The  country  in  the  southern  and  central  colonics  had 
been  visited,  and  in  parts  revisited  by  the  renowned  White- 
field,  and  he  reached  Boston  in  September,  1740.  He  was 
assisted  in  ^is  itinerant  and  revival  labors  by  the  Rev. 
Gilbert  Tenn^ait,*  and  soon  both  were  followed  by  the  Rev. 
James  Davenport,  of  Southfield,  Long  Island. 

On  October  29th,  1727,  New  England  had  been  visited 
by  an  earthquake  so  powerful  in  its  nature  as  to  exten- 
sively alarm,  and  in  connection  with  the  means  of  grace, 
bring  not  a  few  of  the  people  to  a  more  solemn  personal 

*''He  was  ordained  in  1727,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first 
candidate  licensed  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  America  who  was 
educated  within  its  limits."     {Log  College,  p.  43.) 


1 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  97 

inquiry  in  relation  to  their  spiritual  welfare.  In  the 
course  of  ten  or  twelve  years  these  impressions  were  by 
that  generation  measurably  forgotten,  and  probably  were 
now  ahiiost  lost.  In  such  days  of  declension  the  atten- 
tion of  many  was  arrested  by  the  appearance  of  Whitefield. 
The  novelty  of  his  manner  and  his  powerful  eloquence  at- 
tracted large  audiences,  and  as  he  visited  the  prominent 
towns  and  villages  in  the  colonies,  his  influence  became 
very  extensive.  He  had  not  yet  (in  1740)  separated  from 
Wesley  (which  he  did  in  the  next  year). 

It  has  been  estimated  that  probably  by  about  one-fifth 
of  the  clergymen  of  New  England  he  was  welcomed  and 
applauded. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Congregationalist  churches  was  at 
this  date  still  generally  Calvinistic,  consequently  Rev. 
Messrs.  Thomas  Prince,  John  Webb  and  William  Cooper, 
of  Boston,  who  were  the  warm  advocates  of  the  revival,  not 
only  described  it  on  January  12th,  1742,  as  "  the  wondrous 
Avork  of  God  making  its  triam}>hant  i)rogress  through  the 
land,"  but  they  also  declared  tliat  "in  vain  do  its  remain- 
ing enemies  attempt  to  brand  it  as  enthusiasm."  The}^ 
then  state,  "We  are  glad  that  our  brethren  from  Ireland 
agree  with  us  on  the  Shorter  Catechism."  Yet  at  this 
period,  while  the  doctrine  of  the  churclies  was  extensively 
Calvinistic,  the  union  of  Cnurch  and  State  was  operating 
in  many  cases  to  produce  an  unfruitful  ministry,  if  not  a 
lifeless  formality,  and  both  pa.st(M's  and  people  were  now, 
at  least  partially,  aroused  to  inquiry. 

In  view  of  the  results  of  the  labors  of  Messrs.  Whitefield, 
Tennant  and  Davenport,  some  of  the  most  powerful  and 
sanctified  minds  in  the  land  (such  as  that  of  Jonathan 
Edwards)  were  prompted  to  greater  diligence  in  the  work 
of  the  ministry.  Not  only  did  he  "  cry  aloud  and  spare 
not "  in  his  own  charge  in  Northampton,  Mass.,  but  he  to 
some  extent  itinerated. 

Among  the  many  places  which  he  visited  none  was 
more  highly  favored  by  the  blessing  of  heaven  upon  his 
labors  than  Enfield,  Conn.,  where,  on  July  8th,  1741,  from 
the  words,  "  Their  feet  shall  slide  in  due  time,"*  he  was 

*  A  conference  of  Baptist  ministers  in  Boston  in  October,  1880,  after 
discussing  the  subject,  concluded  that  "  it  would  not  be  for  edification  to 

7 


98  HISTORY    OF    PRESBYTERIANISM 

instrumental  in  awakening  liundreds  from  spiritual 
lethargy. 

When  this  revival  of  1740-4  commenced  in  New  Eng- 
land, Mr.  Moorehead  was  "shy  of  it,"  but,  when  its  effects 
were  more  extensively  exhibited,  he,  with  the  Rev.  D.  Mc- 
Grcgore  entered  zealously  into  the  measures  adopted  for 
prospering  it. 

In  his  church,  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper  was 
usually  dispensed  four  times  in  the  year.  After  his  sus- 
pension in  1736,  he  was  generally  assisted  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  McGregore.  When  the  Presbyterian  form  is  con- 
sidered, and  it  is  remembered,  that  tlie  services  were  con- 
tinued from  Thursday  forenoon  till  Monday  afternoon 
(with  the  exception  of  Friday),  it  will  be  seen  that  aid  in 
tlie  pulpit  became  necessary.  He  availed  himself  of  the 
opportunity,  and  had  on  one  sacramental  season,  the  as- 
sistance of  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield.  His  meeting-house 
then  was  the  old  "  barn,"  which  John  Little  had  "  con- 
verted into  a  house  of  worship,"  and  to  which  building 
the  congregation  had  before  this  date — between  1735  and 
1741 — "added  two  wings."  In  "tiiis  rude  and  lowly  edi- 
fice," (Mem.  Fedl.  St.  Ch.,)  at  this  date,  1740-1,  even  his 
own  growing  congregation  could  with  difficulty  he  accom- 
modated. "  On  this  occasion  the  house  could  not  contain 
the  audience,  and  the  doors  and  windows  were  filled 
with  the  spectators,"  especially  on  the  Sabbath,  when 
"  each  minister  served  a  table  in  rotation." 

It  was  now  a  little  unusual  to  see  the  position  of  Moore- 
head and  ^McGregore.  They  had,  in  1736,  been  suspended 
by  the  Presbytery.  This  had  the  effect  (according  to  Le- 
Mercier)  of  preventing  any  of  the  Congregationalist  min- 
isters for  years  from  preaching  in  exchange  with  Moore- 
head, if  they  ever  had  done  so,  yet,  now  the  majorit)'' 
of  the  ministers  of  the  town  received  him  as  a  fellow- 
worker  in  the  revival — while  from  it,  from  year  to  year, 
the  whole  remanent  members  of  the  original  Presbytery 
stood  aloof.     In  this  respect,  as  Presbyterians,  taking  part 

have  any  man  preach  such  a  sermon  from  that  text  to-day."  It  was  an 
Old  Testament  text,  and  they  are  in  the  last  quarter  of  "  the  nineteenth 
century."  A  sermon  from  that  text  must  be  "  dark  and  Jewish  and 
cloudy."  The  times  are  changed,  and  such  men  are  changed  with  them, 
while  truth  is  unchangeable. 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  99 

with  the  others  who  associated  with  Mr.  Whitefield,  Moore- 
head  and  McGregore  were  alone.  Their  previous  unha})py 
action  in  suspending  Moorehead  and  Harvey  and  ignoring 
the  ordination  of  McGregore  would  doubtless  prompt  Le- 
Mercier,  Davidson,  Rutherford,  Wilson,  McClenahan,  Dun- 
lap,  and  Johnston  to  avoid  such  associations,  or  ministers, 
as  would  join  in  fellowship  with  them. 

Beside  this,  however,  other  influences  were  in  operation. 
As  will  be  subsequently  seen,  many  irregularities  and  ex- 
cesses subversive  of  decency  and  order,  judging  from  a 
Presbyterian  standpoint,  attended  the  "awakening." 

Some  of  them,  as  LeMercier,  Wilson,  and  Davidson, 
might  fear  the  disturbance  of  their  parochial  peace,  and 
dreading  the  influences  of  excitement  on  the  growth  in 
spiritual  knowledge  and  mental  stability  of  their  pastoral 
charges,  stand  aloof  from  its  supporters.  From  whatever 
cause,  they  gave  the  "  awakening  "  no  encouragement.  By 
others,  it  was  hailed  with  joy. 

"  Deep  declension  was  now  pervading  many  of  the  New 
England  Congregational  churches." 

The  Puritanism  of  Shepard,  Cotton,  Norton,  Mitchell, 
Hooker,  and  Stone  was  now,  under  an  increasing  worldly 
prosperity,  diminishing  in  spirituality.  Godliness  was 
manifestly  declining.  Religion  became  more  of  an  outward 
profession  and  less  the  reality  of  "  newness  of  life."  Be- 
tween the  church  and  the  world,  the  difference  was  fast 
diminishing.  The  eldership  were  more  lightly  esteemed. 
Their  ofhce,  work  and  "faces  were  not  honored"  as  in 
times  past. 

Church  discipline  was  increasingly  neglected.  Immorali- 
ties grew  apace. 

"The  preaching  became  less  discriminating  and  pun- 
gent. The  doctrines  of  the  ancient  faith,  long  neglected, 
and  reduced  in  the  minds  of  the  people  to  a  dead  letter, 
were  fast  gliding  away  from  the  popular  creed,  and  were 
on  the  eve  of  being  displaced  for  another  system. 

"  Such  was  the  condition  of  a  large  portion  of  the  churches 
of  New  England  when  the  great  awakening  broke  upon 
them  in  its  power."  {Stearns.)  Under  the  faithful  preach- 
ing of  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards,  at  Northampton,  the 
covenants  both  of  works  and  of  grace  were  exhibited  to 
sinners  in  their  connections  and  dependencies.     The  Holy 


100  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Spirit  owned  his  own  truth,  and  in  the  salvation  of  num- 
bers honored  his  own  word. 

Edwards  was  settled  in  that  town  in  February,  1727,  and 
his  vitalizing  instructions  had  under  the  Divine  blessing 
pervaded  his  people  extensively  before  Whitefield  visited 
these  eastern  colonies.  "  Under  the  preaching  of  White- 
field  and  Tennant  the  impulse  spread  rapidly,  even  to  the 
remote  villages  and  rural  districts,  as  well  as  to  the  larger 
and  commercial  towns.  Says  the  Rev.  Jona.  F.  Stearns, 
wliom  I  freely  quote  {Hisi.,  Dis.,  p.  8):  "Churches 
Avhich  had  long  '  settled  upon  their  lees ' "  now  began  to  feel 
within  them  a  strong  fermentation.  Old  respectabilit}', 
proud  of  its  decent  forms,  began  to  find  the  sceptre  of  its 
influence  loosening  in  its  grasp,  aiwl  the  legitimacy  of 
its  long  dominion  boldly  questioned,  by  a  people,  profess- 
ing to  have  been  just  now  turned  from  "darkness  into 
marvellous  light."  The-eflect  of  this  new  impulse  fell,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  most  heavily  upon  the  pastors 
of  the  churches. 

Secure  of  their  support,  by  the  aid  of  the  civil  law 
pledging  all  the  real  and  personal  estate,  within  certain 
geographical  limits,  for  the  fulfilment  of  their  pecuniary 
contracts  (destitute  of  the  supervision  of  scriptural  Pres- 
bytery, and  of  all  courts  of  reference,  appeal,  or  review), 
and  ministering  to  a  people  not  desirous  of  great  pastoral 
fidelity,  to  the  disturbance  of  their  slumbering  consciences, 
a  large  part  of  them  had  settled  down  into  a  dull  routine 
of  Sabbath  day  performances,  and  were  spending  their 
week-day  hours,  when  not  employed  in  the  preparation 
of  their  hasty  discourses,  in  the  improvement  of  their 
parsonage  lands,  the  indulgence  of  their  literary  tastes, 
or  in  friendly  correspondence  and  in  social  intercourse 
with  each  other,  and  with  those  distinguished  men  in  civil 
life,  who  courted  their  society  and  respected  their  respec- 
tability, or  sought  to  avail  themselyes  for  their  own  pur- 
poses of  their  unbounded  influence. 

Many  of  the  ministers  of  that  day,  it  is  supposed,  were 
men  who  had  never  experienced  in  their  own  hearts  the 
power  of  "  the  faith  "  which  they  professed  to  teach. 

Not  a  few  had  become  very  sceptical  in  regard  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  and  one  evil  of  the  law 
was,  that  by  a  majority  vote  a  Calvinistio  minority  were 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  101 

compelled  to  support  an  Arminian  or  Pelagian  teacher,  or 
if  they  built  an  house  for  themselves  on  the  voluntary 
principle,  they  Avere  still  taxed  to  support  "the  church  of 
the  parish."  Thus,  in  seasons  of  declension,  the  law  be- 
came an  instrument  of  oppression  to  the  followers  of  the 
Puritan  doctrines. 

As  we  have  seen,  about  one-fifth  of  the  ministr}^  hailed 
the  arrival  of  Whitefield  and  Tennant ;  but  of  the  others, 
at  least  not  a  few,  opposed  the  "awakening." 

In  their  visits  to  the  leading  towns  and  villages  of  New 
England,  they  were  followed  by  the  Rev.  James  Daven- 
port. Of  him  the  Rev.  Mr.  W — n,  of  Farmington,  Connect- 
icut, in  which  colon}'  he  labored  much,  says:  "Laying 
great  stress  on  trances,  visions,  revelations  and  impulses, 
speaking  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  a  dead  letter,  and  that 
it  was  not  worth  while  for  the  unconverted  to  consult 
them  ;  encouraging  negroes  and  the  most  ignorant  of  the 
people  to  become  exhorters,  even  in  considerable  assem- 
blies, and  women  to  become  teachers.  Laying  such  weight 
on  their  agonies,  screaming  out,  convulsions,  faintings, 
etc.,  etc.,  whereby  the  worship  of  God  is  disturbed,  and, 
suddenly,  when  they  came  out  of  them,  with  some  seem- 
ing joy,  declaring  their  conversion."  As  Mr.  Davenport 
set  light  by  the  "  Holy  Scriptures  as  a  dead  letter,  and  that 
it  was  not  worth  while  for  the  unconverted  to  consult 
them,"  so  he  carried  out  his  measures  by  introducing 
human  poetry  to  excite  appropriate  feelings,  rejecting  the 
gongs  of  Zion,  "  written  not  with  ink  only,  but  with  and 
by  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God."  Hence,  coi:ttinues  Mr. 
AV — rr,  "  thrusting  out,  and  bringing  in  a  reproach  upon 
our  sacred  psalmody,  by  l)ringing  hymns  into  the  worship 
of  God  of  a  mere  human  composure." 

Up  till  this  period  the  Psalms  alone  were  the  matter  of 
praise  used  in  the  pu1)lic  formal  worship  of  God,  but  now 
the  agitation  of  the  churches  made  men  less  careful  about 
the  Divine  landmarks.  Copies  of  the  imitations  of  the 
139  of  the  Psalms,  which  the  Rev. .Dr.  Watts  had  finished 
in  A.  D.  1718,  were  from  time  to  time  imported  and  used 
under  the  grace  of  better  rhythm  and  beauties  of  smoother 
poetry  (while  he  did  not  pretend  that  they  Averea  trans- 
lation,  version,  or  copy  of  the  sacred  original,  but  only  an 
imitation^  the  Psalms  of  David  imitated  in  the  language 


102  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

of  the  New  Testament),  yet,  as  this  author  was  an  avowed 
defender  and  a  boasted  ornament  of  independency,  if  not 
of  Congregationalism,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mather  said,  in  ad- 
dressing him,  "  Is  this  an  angel,  or  a  Watts  that  sings?  " 

It  is  probable  that,  having  drunk  so  long  the  old  wine 
of  the  pure  word,  the  New  England  churches  would  not 
yet,  for  years,  have  said,  the  now  wine  of  the  139  imita- 
tions is  better,  but  they  were  probably  extensively  used 
by  Mr.  Whitefield,  and  they  suited  the  views  and  aims  of 
Mr.  Davenport  and  the  other  "  separatists." 

Consequently  a  demand  was  created  for  them,  and  in 
1741,  a  Mr.  Edwards  published  at  Dock  Square  in  Boston, 
of  them  the  first  American  edition.  His  ''  three  books  of 
hymns  "  were  not  scriptural  enough  to  warrant  the  pub- 
lication of  them  in  New  England  as  yet,  but  Benjamin 
Franklin,  who  thought  it  as  well  for  his  father  to  "  bless 
the  whole  barrel "  of  meat  "  at  once,"  keenly  saw  how  the 
tide  was  flowing,  and  that  a  market  for  them  was  spring- 
ing up  in  connection  with  the  religious  movements  of  the 
day.  Consequently  in  1741,  at  Philadelphia,  he  published 
of  them  the  first  American  edition. 

The  introduction  of  both  the  imitations  and  his  hymns, 
especiall}'  the  latter,  was  in  strong  opposition  to  the  Puri- 
tan feeling  of  the  period.  "  Hence,"  says  Turnell's  Dia- 
logue (published  in  1742),  p.  13,  "  we  are  much  obliged 
to  Watts  and  others.  What  I  am  against  is  every  preacher 
bringing  what  hymns  and  sonnets  he  pleases,  to  be  sung 
among  us.  I  have  reason  to  fear,  that  heresy  may  creep 
in  at  this  door." 

"A  few  years  ago,  when  some  worthy  ministers  Cprobably 
the  Congregationalist  ones  of  Roxbury,  already  mentioned) 
moved  for  another  translation  of  the  Psalms,  there  was 
made  a  loud  cry  of  innovation  ;  but  now,  it  seems,  the 
Psalms  themselves  may  be  almost  wholly  laid  aside  in  private 
meetings  and  evening  lectures,  and  mere  human  compo- 
sures (and  some  of  them  low  enough,  too)  introduced 
without  much  opposition.  This  cannot  be  from  the  Spirit 
of  God,  who  will  ever  put  honor  on  the  word." 

The  same  feeling  was  expressed  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cole- 
man of  Boston. 

When  time  had  somewhat  enabled  him  to  see  the  fruits 
of  this  unscriptural  innovation,  he  wrote,  on  August  14th, 
1744,  to  the  Rev.  Solomon  Williams,  of  Lebanon,  thus : 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  103 

"  I  heartily  wish  that  no  more  human  hymns  may  be 
brou:;ht  into  the  public  worship  of  Gocl.  No,  not  the 
very  best  in  the  world,  even  those  of  Dr.  Watts  himself." 

We  thus  see  the  hold  which  the  songs  of  Jehovah  had 
for  above  a  century  upon  the  Puritan  mind,  when  the 
soul  recoiled  at  the  idea  of  placing  "  strange  fire  upon  the 
altar  of  God  "  in  praise,  even  while  it  might  be  the  "  very 
best  mere  human  hymns  in  the  world."  "  How  has  the 
gold  become  dim  !  How  is  the  most  fine  gold  changed  !" 
We  have  seen  that,  on  the  character  and  results  of  the 
"awakening,"  the  Presbyterian  ministers  were  divided. 
The  Presbytery  appear  to  have,  if  not  opposed  it,  at  least 
to  have  taken  no'  positive  interest  in  it.  One  of  their 
number,  who  appears  to  have  joined  them  since  the  sus- 
pension of  Moorehead  and  Harvey  (in  1736),  was  a  Mr. 
John  Caldwell,  of  whom,  owing  to  the  loss  of  the  Records 
of  that  Presbytery,  we  know  but  little,  beside  the  fact,  that 
he  zealously  opposed  "  the  awakening  "  and  its  authors, 
and  preached  before  the  Presbytery  in  the  French  Church 
a  sermon  on  "the  marks  of  false  prophets."  Davenport 
was  at  this  time  in  a  frenzy  of  zeal,  animating  and  increas- 
ing "  the  separating  brethren  and  sisters  in  Long  Island, 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts."  "He  was  borne  away 
b_y  a  strange  enthusiasm  in  1740-41.  He  encouraged  out- 
cries, by  which  religion  was  disgraced.  His  voice  he 
raised  to  the  highest  pitch  and  gave  a  separate  tune  (tone) 
which  was  characteristic  of  the  separate  preachers.  In 
his  zeal  he  examined  ministers,  as  to  the  reality  of  their 
religion,  and  warned  the  people  against  unconverted  min- 
isters. Davenport  having  denounced  the  Boston  minis- 
ters was  presented  to  the  grand  jury  and  by  them  declared 
to  be  insane.  (W.)  In  1742  the  Assembly  of  Connecticut 
directed  the  governor  to  transport  him  from  that  colony  to 
Southhold,  Long  Island.  He  published  a  retraction  and 
confession  in  1744  and  died  in  1755." 

On  his  departure  from  Boston,  in  1742,  Mrs.  Moorehead 
wrote  to  him  an  address  in  poetry,  "  by  way  of  dream." 
In  a  pamphlet  of  eight  pages  16mo.,  she  not  only  praises 
Mr.  Davenport  and  "  censures  Mr.  Caldwell,"  but  also 
"  addresses  a  sinner,"  saying : 

"  We  merit  nothing  but  our  utmost  cares, 
But  plead  the  scars  his  human  nature  wears." 


104  HISTORY    OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Caldwell  labored  zealously  to 
counteract  what  he  believed  to  be  a  wide-spreading  and 
dangerous  enthusiasm. 

In  1742  he  preached  and  published  in  Boston  a  sermon 
on  the  "  trial  of  the  present  spirit,"  a  second  on  "  the 
Scripture  character,  or  marks  of  false  teachers,"  and  a 
third  "against  uncharitable  judging." 

In  these  views  and  hibors  he  appears  to  have  been  sus- 
tained by  the  Presbytery.  In  June,  1742,  he  received  by 
the  recommcn(h\tion  of  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  WilHani 
Davidson,  from  the  congregation  of  Derry,  "  a  little  help, 
the  sum  of  eight  pounds."  (Rec.  of  Sess.).  Letters  were 
written  to  Scotland  speaking  disparagingly  of  "  the  awak- 
ening "  and  its  results.  Hence,  said  the  Rev.  Joshua  Gee, 
of  Boston,  to  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Eells,  "The  shameful 
misrepresentations  of  the  state  of  religion  among  us,  which" 
have  been  given  by  Mr.  A.  M.  (probably  the  Rev.  Andrew 
LeMercier),  by  the  famous  Mr.  John  Caldwell  and  by  the 
Rev.  S.  Mather,  according  to  the  accounts  of  the  revival  in 
England,  which  come  to  us  from  Scotland,  seem  to  be 
this:  that  since  Mr.  Whitefield's  coming,  antinomianism, 
familiaistical  errors,  enthusiasm,  gross  delusions  and  scan- 
dalous disorders  have  been  })revailing  in  the  churches." 
What  action  the  Presbytery  took,  or  what  deliverances  it 
gave  to  the  churches  under  its  care,  in  view  of  the  distrac- 
tions which  were  introduced  (from  the  loss  of  their  Re- 
cords), we  know  not,  only  we  see  that  Caldwell  labored 
atileast  occasionally  in  Londonderry,  but  Moorehead  and 
McGregor  (who  were  not  then  in  connection  with  any 
Presbytery)  joined  with  others  in  approving  the  entire 
movement.  Mr.  McGregor  preached  in  favor  of  the  awak- 
ening, and  printed  one  or  more  sermons  on  the  subject. 

On  July  7th,  1743,  a  meeting  of  ministers  called  for  the 
purpose  of  approving  the  labors  of  Whitefield,  Tennant 
and  Davenport,  was  held  in  Boston.  Moorehead  was 
present  and  joined  in  the  approval.  McGregor  could  not 
attend,  but  afterwards  concurred  by  letter,  saying,  "  I  look 
upon  this  to  be  the  happy  effects  of  Divine  influences.  I 
have  seen  but  little  growth  of  antinomianism  but  what 
arises  from  justification  by  faitli  alone,  and  of  enthusiasm 
onl}^  that  which  springs  from  tlie  witnessing  of  the  Spirit." 

At  that  meeting,  or  subsequently  by  letter,  there  were 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  105 

given  in  all  one  hundred  and  eleven  attestations  to  the  re- 
vival :  one  from  Rhode  Island,  eight  from  New  Hampshire, 
twelve  from  Connecticut,  and  ninety  in  Massachusetts — 
and  of  these  only  two  were  given  by  Presbyterians,  by 
those  two  named.  Only  seventy  pastors  were  present  at 
the  said  meeting  of  approval.  Of  these  thirty-eight  voted 
in  the  affirmative.  Scarcely  one-third  of  the  pastors  were 
present,  and  "  the  awakening  "  was  favorably  "  attested  by 
less  than  one-fifth  of  the  pastors  of  Massachusetts." 

The  last  published  "  testimony  against  Whitefield  and 
his  conduct "  was  l)y  the  professors  of  Harvard  College  on 
December  28th,  1744.  For  their  objections  they  gave  as 
reasons : 

"1st.  The  man  himself  was  enthusiastic,  censorious,  un- 
charitable, and  a  deluder  of  the  people.  2dly.  As  an  ex- 
tempore and  itrinerant  preacher,  as  opposed  "to  study  and 
to  meditation."  They  conclude  "  by  suggesting  to  the 
pastors  and  associations  that  it  is  high  time  to  make  a 
stand  against  these  mischiefs  coming  on  the  churches." 
Signed  by  Edward  Holyoke,  President,  and  seven  Pro- 
fessors. 

To  end  this  matter,  so  far  as  this  chapter  is  concerned, 
it  is  enough  to  state  that  in  1744  Mr.  Davenport  published 
his  confessions  and  retractions.  They  seem  to  have  been 
addressed  to  the  Rev.  Solomon  Williams,  of  Lebanon,  and 
were  by  him  sent  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Prince,  of  Boston,  under 
date  of  August  2d.     In  these  he  states : 

^^ First.  1  openly  exposed  in  prayer  or  otherwise  those 
whom  I  thought  unconverted.  Secondly.  I  advised  to  sep- 
arations from  them.  Thirdly.  I  was  led  astray  by  follow- 
ing impulses.  Fourthly.  By  encouraging  private  persons  to 
a  ministerial  and  authoritative  kind  of  method  of  exhort- 
ing. Fifthly.  I  did  not  prevent  singing  with  others  in  the 
streets.  I  make  this  public  recantation.  May  God 
bless  it.  "James  Davenport." 

Such,  then,  was  the  state  of  Presbyterianism  in  New 
England  in  relation  to  doctrine  and  worship  in  1743-4,  at 
the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  a  century  after  it  had  been 
introduced  Uy  McGregor  and  his  associates.  In  some 
places  it  prospered  exceedingl3^     This  was  the  case  in  all 


106  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  towns  where  it  had  the  ascendency  and  was  established 
by  civil  law.  In  others  it  was  worried  for  Avant  of  "  free- 
dom to  worship  God,"  and  in  some  cases,  as  we  have  seen, 
it  succumbed  to  Congregationalism.  The  precise  number 
of  congregations  now,  nor  yet  the  exact  number  of  settled 
pastors,  we  cannot  state. 

There  was,  however,  a  Presbytery  in  full  operation 
which  had  no  intercourse  with  the  ministers  whom  they 
had  suspended.  Emigration  and  domestic  increase  added 
largely  to  tlieir  aggregate  numbers.  New  towns  were  set- 
tled, churches  were  formed,  and  during  the  next  twenty- 
five  years  Presbyterianism  had  an  increasing  vitality  in, 
New  England.  ' 

For  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  or  the  support  and  vin- 
dication of  "  sound  doctrine  "  up  till  this  period,  the  Press 
had  not  been  employed  by  Presl)yterians  in  these  colonies 
excepting  by  the  Rev.  A.  LeMercier  in  publishing  his 
"  History  of  Geneva."     See  appendix  C. 

To  it  both  Moorehead  and  LeMercier  afterwards  resorted 
in  their  controversies,  and  the  pamphlets  of  "  John  Pres- 
byter "  and  LeMercier's  "  review "  and  "  answer "  each 
betray  not  a  little  of  "  the  wrath  of  man." 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  101 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1743-1768 — An  efficient  Eldership — Prejudice — Formation  of  a  second 
Presbytery — Abercrombie — Pelham— Its  bell — AVork  to  do — Colerain 
— A  "  Presbyteriul  visitation  " — Daniel  Mitchell  licensed — Rutland — 
Georgetown — Shee[)scote — If  "he  should  judge  safe" — Wiscasset — 
Souhegan^ — Kingston — (Glasgow — Boyd  licensed — Difficidties  in  Pel- 
ham — Parsons  rec^  ived — Double  taxes — First  pro  re  naia,  1749 — Re- 
lief sought  by  Parsons — Strife  in  Pelham— Reaction — A  plea — Rea- 
sons— Abercrondjie  suspended — "Rejoinder" — The  precision  of  the 
Scotchmnn  -  Four  persons  tit — His  imprudence — An  exotic — The  rea- 
son— It  grows — Better  counsels — Palmer — Harvey — A  scandal — Dis- 
missed— R.  Bin-ns  examined  a  ))art  of  two  days — Installed  there — Mr. 
Kniblows — C'oleraine — The  Foi't  j)receded  the  church — Its  bell  from 
Lord  C.  purloined — Alexander  McDowell — Another  phase — Easton — 
Rev.  Sol.  Prentice — Troubles — Voted — Xov.  5,  1752 — "My  wife  at 
it" — Vagrant  lay  teachers — The  milletmium — Presbytery  suspended 
him — He  entertained  not  "angels  unawares" — An  address  to  "the 
Kirk"-— Zeal  in  their  work — Calls — Boyd  and  Mary  Buchan — I32d 
Psalm — Boyd  installed  at  New  Castle — AVinslow  a  disturber — Volun- 
town — Dorrance — Pioneers — Peterboro — John  Morrison — A  compro- 
mise— Felo  de  se — The  plain  of  Ono — Tampers  with  principle — Wind- 
ham— Rev.  John  Kird<ead — Rev.  S.  Williams — £5J^^S5(3.oU  in 
specie  in  1720 — Scarboro — Rev.  Thos.  Pierce — A  specimen — London- 
derry Presbytery — Res[)ectable  but  their  Ministry  died  out — Rev.  Mr. 
Dunlop — He  saw  his  house  and  family  burned  by  the  Indians — Brad- 
ford— Rev.  John  Houston — A  change  in  a  church  in  New  York- 
Effects  Presbyterianism — Scots — Rev.  D.  McGregor — Animosities — 
Teaciiings — The  imitations — Rev.  John  Mason — "  Incurably  dissatis- 
fied " — "Seceders" — Overborne — If  principle  had  prevailed,  Presby- 
terianism in  this  land  would  have  had  a  bright  future — The  blight  of 
Socinianism — The  little  cloud,  floods  of  error  and  division — The 
rancor  of  a  century — "  Time  but  the  impression  deeper  makes." 

In  entering  on  this  period,  it  may  be  useful  at  times  to 
recapitulate  a  little. 

Notwithstanding  the  isolated  position  of  Moorehead  and 
McGregor,  their  congregations  prospered.  A  large  and 
efficient  eldership  assisted  them  in  their  respective  charges. 
Family  worship  and  domestic  discipline  were  attended  to. 


108  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Having  entered  warmly  into  the  spirit  of  Whitefield,  and 
being  in  the  prime  of  ministerial  usefuhiess,  they  were  each 
extensively  prospered  in  their  Master's  ^york.  "  Still,  they 
found  their  situation  relatively  unpleasant,  as  they  were 
sul)ject  to  and  jjnjtccted  by  no  church  court.  To  return 
to  the  original  Presbytery  was  well  nigh  an  impossibility. 
Prejudice  with  other  even  inferior  operations  of  our  un- 
sanctihed  nature,  such  as  sarcasm,  was  at  work,  and  cher- 
ished sectarian  rancor.  Thus  they  passed  about  or  above 
eight  years  of  isolation,  until  eventually  the}^  accomplished 
that  with  which  they  liad  been  charged  at  their  suspension 
by  LeMercier — the  formation  of  a  Presbytery.  This,  by 
themselves,  they  would  not  probably  liave  attempted,  but 
Providence  eventually  enabled  tliem  to  accomj^lish  it  by 
bringing  to  their  aid  the  Rev.  Robert  Abercrombie. 

He,  on  l)eing  licensed,  left  Scotland  with  testimonials 
from  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  and  Kirkaldy,  and  re- 
commendations from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Perth.  He 
came  to  New  England  in  the  autumn  of  1740,  and  after 
laboring  nearly  four  years  in  different  places  as  a  proba- 
tioner, was  ordained  in  Pelham,  Mass.,  on  August  30th, 
1744,  by  a  council,  consisting  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Moore- 
head,  McGregor,  Edwards,  of  Northampton,  Parsons,  of 
East  Hadley,  Billings,  of  Greenfield,  and  White,  of  Hard- 
wicke. 

On  this  occasion  tlie  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards  preached 
from  John  v.  35  :  "  He  was  a  burning  and  a  shining  light." 

Pelham  was  incorporated  on  January  15th,  1743,  about 
which  time  they  called  the  Rev.  William  Johnston,  for- 
merly of  Worcester,  and  then  pastor  at  Windham,  N.  H.,  a 
member  of  the  then  existing  Presbytery,  but  he  refused 
their  call. 

Lord  Pelham  gave  to  the  town  a  bell,  but  it  remained  in 
Boston  until  it  was  sold  for  the  freight  and  storage. 
Others  say  it  was  purchased  by  the  Old  South,  in  Boston, 
from  the  Pelham  church. 

The  inhabitants  of  this  town  were  to  be  Presbyterians. 
The  church  was  organized  in  1743.  Mr.  Abercrombie  was 
a  profound  scholar  and  had  a  fine  library,  Avhich,  after  the 
vicissitudes  of  above  a  century,  is  owned  by  one  of  his  de- 
scendants. His  early  Presbyterian  education  and  the 
mental  instability  inherent  in  Congregationalism,  prompted 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  109 

Abercrombie  to  seek  the  more  scriptural  order  of  ecclesias- 
tical government. 

Why  he  did  not  ask  a  connection  with  the  original 
Presbytery,  which  Avas  still  in  its  vigor,  is  not  known,  and 
we  find  that  his  views  of  the  standing  of  Moorehead  and 
McGregor  did  not  prevent  him  from  seeking  their  fellow- 
ship. 

After  due  conference  on  the  subject  and  much  prayer, 
they  resolved  that  if  their  congregations  concurred,  they 
should  soon,  and  in  an  orderly  wa}',  assume  Presbyterial 
responsibilities. 

Having  agreed  that  the  organization  was  desirable,  they, 
with  their  congregations,  observed  "  the  third  Wednesday 
of  March,  1745,  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  luimiliation  to  ask 
counsel  of  God  in  this  important  matter." 

This  being  done,  they  met  on  "the  16th  day  of  April, 
1745,  at  Londonderry,  and  being  aided  by  ]Mr.  James  Mc- 
Kean,  ruling  elder  of  that  place,  Mr.  Alexander  Conkey, 
formerly  of  Worcester,  and  then  (probably)  of  Pelham, 
and  Mr.  James  Heughs  (probably)  of  Boston,  they  did  by 
pra3^er  constitnte  themselves  into  a  Presbytery,  to  act,  so 
far  as  their  (then)  present  circumstances  would  permit 
them,  according  to  the  word  of  God  and  Constitutions  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  agreeing  with  that 
perfect  rule." 

Mr.  Abercrombie  was  chosen  Clerk  and  Mr.  Moorehead 
Moderator. 

To  whatever  extent  their  conduct  might,  when  exposed 
to  a  rigid  scrutiny,  meet  the  approbation  of  true  Presbyte- 
rians, they  had  now  placed  themselves  in  working  order  as 
a  church  court,  and  they  had  work  to  do. 

Among  other  matters  a  reference  from  the  session  of 
Pelham  was  on  that  day  laid  before  them — and  a  letter 
from  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Colerain,  Massachu- 
setts, was  read,  requesting  the  Presbytery  to  take  them 
under  their  care.  At  their  next  meeting,  in  Boston,  on 
August  13th,  1745,  both  of  these  cases  received  attention. 
Mr.  Abercrombie  had  (as  directed)  visited  the  Presbyte- 
rians of  Colerain,  and  now  presented  a  request  from  them 
for  the  services  of  a  Mr.  Graham,  who,  "having  a  design 
to  remove  from  tjiese  parts  very  soon,"  did  not  accede  to 
their  wishes. 


110  HISTORY    OF    PRESBYTERIANISM 

Not  only  in  name  did  these  congregations  adhere  to 
Presbyterianisni.  They  viewed  its  arrangements  as  Scrip- 
tural, and  the  session  at  Pelham  recjuested  a  Presbyterial 
visitation.  Where  this  is  faithfully  performed,  and  no- 
where else,  is  the  full  spirit  of  tlie  divine  injunction  brought 
into  operation — "Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you 
and  submit  yourselves,  for  they  watch  for  your  souls,"  etc. 
(Heb.  xiii.  17.) 

To  the  Presbytery  coming  together,  constituting,  in  the 
name  and  "by  the  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  the 
pastor  and  elders  in  all  spiritual  matters,  and  the  deacons 
in  "  the  outward  affairs  of  the  house  of  God,"  in  answer  to 
formal  official  inquiries,  detail  the  dehnquencies  or  faith- 
fulness of  each  other — and  to  these  under-shepherds,  sitting 
in  judgment,  their  ^'accounU'^  in  the  highest  sense  on  earth 
are  "  rendered  with  joy  and  not  with  grief,"  where  no  dere- 
liction of  duty  is  found.  It  forms  a  premonition  of  the 
appearing  of  "the  Chief  Sliepherd."  Without  suitable 
attendance  to  this  duty,  doctrine,  worship,  government  and 
discipline  cannot  usually  long  be  continued  scripturidly 
pure. 

These  were  not,  however,  the  only  demands  made  upon 
the  court.  Complaints  were  entertained  and  adjudicated. 
In  174G,  Mr.  Daniel  Mitchell,  from  Ireland,  was,  after  due 
examination,  and  on  subscribing  the  Westminster  Stand- 
ards, licensed  to  preach  tlie  gospel  as  a  pjrobationer  for  the 
ministry,  in  some  towns,  where  the  number  of  Presbyte- 
rians was  large,  although  not  a  majority,  they  made  request 
at  times  to  have  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  ad- 
ministered in  their  form,  and  have  the  tables  served  by 
ruling  elders  instead  of  Congregationalist  deacons.  From 
a  portion  of  the  church  in  Rutland,  Massachusetts,  a  peti- 
tion was  presented  on  May  12th,  1747,  on  this  subject,  and 
before  the  Presbytery  would  act  upon  it,  the  Moderator 
was  appointed  to  confer  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Eaton,  of  that 
town,  in  the  case.  After  an  extensive  conference  the  appli- 
cants were  duly  "  congregated  "  as  a  Presbyterian  Church. 

On  August  11th,  1747,  Mr.  D.  Mitchell  was  appointed  to 
supply  in  GeorgetoAvn  and  Sheepscote,  from  which  places 
applications  for  his  labors  had  been  presented.  They 
"  leave  with  him  also  a  discretionary  ]5ower  to  go  to  any 
other  places  there  (in  Maine)  as  he  should  judge  safe."   On 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  Ill 

November  11th  he  was  also  appointed  to  supply  till  March 
in  Wiscasset,  Souhegan  and  Litchfield,  anci  afterwards  in 
Kingston  and  Glasgow,  for  the  same  reason  that  from  these 
places  requests  were  made  for  his  services. 

To  meet  these  increasing  demands  Divine  Providence 
now  began  to  bring  to  them  assistance.  One  Mr.  Alexan- 
der Boyd,  who  had  studied  theology  in  Glasgow,  was  in 
due~forin,  after  subscribing  the  Westminster  Standards, 
licensed  at  Pelham  on  June  15th,  1748,  and  directed  "to 
supply  at  Georgetown  for  the  next  three  months,  with  dis- 
cretionary power  to  go  to  ^^'iscasset  and  to  Sheepscote,  as 
he  may  judge  it  to  be  safe."  There  were  no  coaches, 
steamboats,  nor  rail  cars  in  Maine  in  those  days,  and  to 
break  "  the  bread  of  life  "  to  the  dispersed  families  in  the 
wilderness  was  often,  in  many  ways,  a  perilous  undertak- 
ing. Hence  the  indulgence  to  Messrs.  Mitchell  and  Boyd 
to  consult  their  personal  safety. 

At  this  meeting  another,  a  less  pleasant  phase  of  Pres- 
byterial  dut}',  was  presented.  Several  persons  appeared, 
expressing  dissatisfaction  with  some  parts  of  the  conduct 
of  the  pastor  of  Pelham,  and  he  also  requested  a  release 
from  his  charge.  Both  parties  were  very  suitably  advised 
in  relation  to  their  respective  duties  to  each  other  in  the 
future. 

At  Londonderry,  on  October  4th,  1748,  "the  Rev.  Jona- 
than Parsons,  of  "Newberry,  with  the  Presbyterian  congre- 
gation under  his  care,  oflered  themselves  to  join  with  this 
Presbytery.  After  inquiry,  made  with  respect  to  Mr.  Par- 
sons' testimonials  as  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  and  inquiry 
also  into  the  circumstances  of  the  congregation,  so  far  as 
the  Presbytery  judged  necessary,  and  sufficient  satisfaction 
being  had  upon  both  these  heads,"  they  were  "  unani- 
mously received,  and  he  and  Mr.  Thomas  Pike  took  their 
seats  accordingly."  This  was  a  substantial  increase  to  the 
Presbytery.  Their  choice  of  Presbyterianism  was  partly 
a  matter  of  compulsion  as  well  as  of  choice  by  both  pastor 
and  people.  They  had  left  the  first  parish,  Newberry,  on 
January  3d,  1746,  had  settled  their  pastor  on  March  19th, 
1746,  and  the  dissentients  from  the  third  parish  Avere 
received  into  their  fellowship  on  the  16th  of  the  following 
October;  but  still  they  were  compelled  to  pay  double 
church  taxes  until  1770.  As  this  congregation  "  continues 
unto  this  day,"  it  will  receive  further  notice. 


112  HISTORY    OF    PRESBYTERIANTSM 

At  this  meeting  (October  4th,  1748)  the  probationers, 
Messrs.  Boyd  and  Mitchell,  had  duly  to  give  an  account 
of  their  labors  ;  and  the  opinion  is  officially  expressed  that 
in  the  vacancy  of  Rutland,  while  "the  congregating  of  the 
]>eople  was  deemed  valid,  the  administration  of  the  Lord's 
»^upper  ought  not  to  have  been  gone  into  without  a  Pres- 
byterial  appointment." 

On  October  5th  the  Rev.  "Mr.  Abercrombie  'petitioned 
for  a  dismission  from  his  pastoral  charge.  He  was  recom- 
mended to  give  the  reasons  of  his  '  uneasiness '  to  the 
l)eople,  who  with  I'lim  are  to  report  the  circumstances  of 
things  against  the  next  Presbytery." 

At  a  pro  re  nata  meeting  in  Boston,  on  March  14th, 
1749,  the  moderation  of  a  call  was  granted  to  Kingston,  or 
Elbows,  New  Hampsliire,  and  on  May  2d,  at  Newberry, 
a  moderation  for  a  call  was  granted  to  Rutland. 

At  this  meeting  the  congregation  of  Pelham  did  not 
make  the  statements  previously  ordered,  and  consequently, 
in  their  case  with  their  pastor,  the  Presbytery  could  not  at 
present  proceed.  A  supplication  from  Messrs.  Samuel 
Poor,  John  Emory  and  others,  to  become,  for  several 
weight}^  reasons,  members  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Parsons'  church, 
■was  considered  ;  and  as  it  appeared,  that  said  "  people  had 
used  all  proper  endeavors  to  get  relief  on  the  Congrega- 
tional way  without  success,  that  their  reasons  are  sufficient 
to  legitimate  their  withdrawal,  and  it  is  directed  that  IMr. 
Parsons  and  his  elders  should  upon  request  admit  them, 
finding  them,  upon  examination,  to  be  persons  of  a  gospel 
conversation." 

On  June  13th,  1749,  at  Pelham,  both  Mr.  Abercrombie 
and  a  committee  on  the  behalf  of  that  town  appeared,  and 
now  "the  beginning  of  strife  was  as  the  letting  out  of 
waters."  Contention  was  (not  only)  not  "left  off,  but 
meddled  with  "  for  several  succeeding  years,  again  "  wound- 
ing the  Saviour  in  the  house  of  his  friends."  Among  the 
varied  forces  in  nature  "  action  and  reaction  "  are  equal, 
and  it  has  at  times  proved  to  be  not  a  little  so  in  the  visi- 
ble church.  The  extraordinary  results  of  the  labors  of 
Whitefield,  Tennant  and  Davenport  we  have  noticed,  and 
now  reaction  in  religious  zeal  was  taking  place,  and  "  the 
love  of  many  had  begun  to  wax  cold." 

This  was  the  case  to  some  extent  in  Pelham.     Mr.  Aber- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  113 

crombie,  being  from  conviction  a  Presbyterian  (although 
from  necessity  ordained  by  a  Council),  considered  it  to  be 
his  duty  to  apply  the  discipline  of  the  church  to  the  igno- 
rant and  immoral  in  relation  to  church  privileges,  and 
especially  to  those  of  them  in  Pelham,  who  demanded  for 
their  children  the  ordinance  of  baptism. 

Thougli  the  Presbyterian  rule  in  relation  to  baptism  is 
alike  Scriptural  and  plain,  viz. :  that  "  baptism  is  not  to  be 
administered  to  an}^  who  are  out  of  the  visible  church  till 
the}^  profess  their  faitli  in  Clirist,  and  obedience  to  him ; 
but  the  infants  of  such  as  are  members  of  the  visible  church 
are  to  be  baptized  " — yet  it  is  strange  that,  wherever  men 
have  not,  in  other  religious  matters,  the  ample  faith  of 
Prelac}^,  which  on  this  point  maintains  that  baptism  "  is 
to  be  refused  to  none  " — or,  on  the  other  hand,  the  less 
Scriptural  belief  that  the  Abrahamic  covenant  w^as  not 
"  confirmed  of  God  in  Christ,"  but  profess  to  believe  that 
"  the  infants  of  such  as  are  members  of  the  visible  churcli 
are  to  be  baptized  " — they  will  often  habitually  live  without 
any  connection  with  the  church  on  earth,  excepting  the 
formal  official  sprinkling  of  their  infants  with  water,  which 
they  usually  consider  to  be  "  christening,"  or,  otherwise, 
giving  to  their  child  a  name !  The  criminal  indulgence 
of  careless  parents  in  this  unscriptural  and  wicked  whim 
by  ministers  has  given  more  weight  of  argument  to  the 
opinions  of  the  Anabaptists  than  all  that  can  be  found  in 
the  volume  of  divine  revelation.  This  evil  had  now  for 
years  appeared  in  Pelham,  and  as  the  support  of  the  min- 
ister was  a  town  business,  so  such  persons  had  apparently 
a  plea  for  their  demands. 

Hence,  says  Mr.  Abercrombie,  May  30th,  1755,  in  a  let- 
ter to  a  friend  :  "  When  the  late  remarkable  Divine  influ- 
ences were  withdrawn,  and  religion  began  to  decline  among 
us,  some  uneasiness  arose  in  my  congregation,  which  I  soon 
perceived  would  increase  unless  I  preached  smooth  things^ 
and  unless  I  complied  with  the  Presbytery  in  all  their 
measures.  This  I  thought  I  could  not  in  faithfulness  do ; 
and  therefore  resolved  to  leave  my  congregation.  I  once 
and  again  desired  Presbytery  to  dismiss  me  from  my  pas- 
toral charge."  But  this* they  would  not  do.  He  presented 
reasons :  "  1st.  Ignorance  and  the  neglect  of  the  means  of 
knowledge,  particularly  their  defects  in  attending  on  cate- 
8 


114  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

chising."  "  5th.  The  town,  on  January  21st,  1747,  voted 
that '  Mr.  A.  should  not  be  allowed  his  next  year's  salary 
without  a  discharge  for  the  former  years.'  "*  This  lifth 
reason  the  Presbytery  considered  "  injurious  to  Mr.  A.'s 
moral  character,  and  ought  to  be  recalled,"  and  "  they  en- 
join him  to  bestir  the  unbaptized  children  in  case  the 
parents  shall  in  some  proper  manner  "  secure  his  necessary 
support.  This  the  town  as  such  did  not  do,  while  "a 
great  number  of  the  town  distinguished  themselves  accord- 
ing to  the  order  of  Presbytery,  and  Mr.  A.  was  enjoined  to 
continue  their  minister  agreeably  to  their  request." 

He,  however,  insisted  upon  the  application  of  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  Church  of  Scotland  (to  which  the  Presbytery 
professedly  held)  to  the  parties  to  whom  it  ought,  in  his 
judgment,  to  apply. 

By  so  doing  he  was  charged  with  "  insinuating  things 
against  the  Presbytery,  evidently  false  and  groundless." 
Mr.  Moorehead  was  "  ordained  to  baptize  the  children  of 
those  whom  he  finds  on  inquiry  to  have  a  right  (in  P.)  to 
that  privilege."  Thus  matters  continued  from  year  to 
year,  becoming  continually  worse,  until  at  Boston,  on  May 
14th,  1755,  he  declined  their  authority,  and  they  sus- 
pended him  from  the  ministry  and  from  the  pastoral 
relation  in  Pelham,  because,  say  they,  "  he  refuses  to 
retract  from  or  make  satisfaction  for  the  false  and  injurious 
things  insinuated." 

His  friends  had  also,  on  April  15th,  1755,  addressed 
Presbytery  on  his  behalf,  but  both  for  himself  and  for 
them  there  was  no  redress,  as  they  were  not  in  connection 
with,  nor  subject  to,  any  Synod  as  a  court  of  appeal  or 
review. 

In  reference  to  this  he  says  to  Presbytery :  "  'Tis  plain, 
the  sum  of  both  my  representations  upon  which  you  build 
your  awful  procedure  is  to  plead  with  you  to  receive  the 
discipline  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  her  purest  times, 


*  "  Pelham,  March  24th,  1748. 
"Accounted  with  James  Conkey,  Treasurer,  for  my  salary  from  the 
year  1744  to  August  the  30th,  1746,  and  received  fifty  pounds  in  bills  of 
the  new  tenor,  which  I  accept  of  as  my  salary  for  said  year,  and  hereby 
discharge  him  and  the  town  from  all  further  demands  of  the  same. 

"  R.  Abercrombie." 


IN  NEW   ENGLAND.  115 

and  practise  in  snch  a  manner  that  immoral  and  illiterate 
persons  ma}^  not  be  admitted  to  the  sacred  office  of  the 
ministry,  and  that  those  who  are  unworth}^  among  the 
people  may  be  kept  back  from  sealing  ordinances." 

"  The  late  remarkable  Divine  influences  "  thus  appear  to 
have  been  "withdrawn,  and  religion  to  have  declined" 
generally  in  the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery,  and  doubtless 
also  among  their  surroundings  when  such  occurrences  had 
taken  place. 

Like  the  stimulant  of  strong  drink  upon  the  human 
system,  the  "  awakening,"  which  had  popularly  ran  into  a 
"revival,"  had  now,  in  a  few  years,  sunk  the  churches 
beneath  the  level  of  the  usual  results  in  the  ordinary  en- 
joyment of  the  means  of  grace,  and  either  in  sympathy 
with,  or  in  deference  to,  the  opinions  and  lives  of  the 
church  members  and  dwellers  in  the  towns,  the  Presbytery, 
according  to  Abercrombie,  adopted  new  "  measures  "  and 
"  preached  smooth  things."  It  is  quite  possible  that  now, 
in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  these 
things,  as  in  others,  history  may  "repeat  itself." 

Notwithstanding  his  suspension  "the  congregation  had 
never  brought  any  charge  against "  Mr.  A.,  and  the  Presby- 
tery "  could  not  break  in  upon  the  congregation  by  the 
session."  The  select  men,  however,  by  the  order  of  Pres- 
bytery, shut  the  meeting-house  doors  on  the  Rev.  Mr.  A., 
not  on  Sabbath,  but  on  Monday.  Thus  matters  continued 
for  three  years.  A  narrative  from  Parsons,  Moorehead 
and  McGregor  was  issued.  This  was  followed  by  "  Re- 
marks "  by  Abercrombie,  and  these  by  a  "  Rejoinder  "  from 
Parsons  and  McGregor  in  1758. 

As  Mr.  A.  had  declared  that  if  he  "had  a  superior  court 
to  which  to  carry  his  case,  he  could  vindicate  his  conduct," 
so  "  at  a  meeting  at  Newberry,  on  May  24th,  1758  (Mr. 
Moorehead  being  Moderator  and  Mr.  McGregor  Clerk), 
they  agreed  to  let  him  appeal,  according  to  his  proposal,  to 
the  associated  ministers  of  Boston  or  to  the  Synod  of  New 
York,"  not  as  having  any  jurisdiction  over  the  Presbj^tery, 
but  as  a  friendly  court,  who  could  act  as  umpire,  and  by 
advice,  promote  peace.     They  so  wrote  to  him. 

Here,  however,  the  preciseness  of  the  Scotchman  appears 
in  his  answer  to  this  proposal,  dated  at  Pelham  on  June 
21st,  1758.     He  says :  "A  Synod  to  whom  the  Presbytery 


116  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

was  not  joined  could  give  him  no  lawful  nor  satisfactory 
redress." 

The  representations  of  the  Presbytery  on  the  points  at 
issue  are,  however,  often  ver^^  different  from  those  of  Mr. 
Abercrombie.  They  appear  to  have  believed  that  he 
sought  to  quarrel  with  them,  say  that  "the  society  had 
been  long  without  the  Lord's  Sup2)er,  as  he  would  not  dis- 
pense it  to  them,  considering  that  only  about  four  persons 
in  the  town  were  worthy  to  receive  it,  that  a  considerable 
number  of  children,  whose  parents  were  persons  of  good 
character,  had  been  long  deprived  of  baptism,  that  he 
could  never  be  prevailed  upon  to  make  any  addition  to  the 
session,  and  baffled  the  aggrieved  when  they  would  attempt 
to  bring  their  matters  of  complaint  before  Presbytery." 

If  they  were  indeed  guilty  of  conforming  to  their  sur- 
roundings, he  did  not  shew  prudence,  mucli  less  wisdom, 
in  upbraiding  them  with  their  delinquencies,  while  he  de- 
clined their  authority  because  he  viewed  them  as  a  party, 
'and  must  have  reconciliation  only  by  measures  of  his  own 
proposing,  which,  when  acceded  to  by  Presbytery,  he 
would  again  ignore.  Whether  his  course  of  conduct  in 
the  matter  arose  from  "  a  zeal  for  God,  not  according  to 
knowledge,"  or,  as  the  authors  of  the  "  Rejoinder "  say, 
*'Some  of  us  would  still  hope  that  his  conduct  towards 
his  brethren  is  the  effect  of  a  strong  temptation,^^'^  still  it 

*  "J.  strong  temptation."  It  is  possible  that  the  following  vigorous 
tradition  may  give  to  us  "a  bird's-eye  view"  of  the  state  of  morals  in 
the  town  (after  the  "awakening"  had  passed  away),  with  both  the 
preacher  and  the  people,  as  he  continued  to  reside  among  them,  and  (so 
far  as  we  know)  to  officiate  among  them  after  he  and  they  had  ceased  to 
be  Presbyterians. 

A  story  ofjiip-daijs.  The  old  Abercrombie  house  at  Pelham  is  said  to 
have  once  been  the  scene  of  a  practical  joke  by  Rev.  Mr.  Abercrombie, 
the  original  occupant  of  the  house  and  minister  of  the  town.  In  his 
days,  of  course,  flip  was  the  common  beverage  of  clergymen  and  the 
laity,  and  no  objection  was  ever  made,  unless  people  became  notoriously 
over-indulgent.  The  charge  was  finally  brought  at  a  church-meeting 
that  the  minister  was  drinking  too  freely,  and  a  committee  was  appointed 
to  tell  him  of  his  fault  and  warn  him  of  tlie  danger  of  continuing  in  it. 
Warned  of  their  coming,  the  erring  pastor  told  his  wife  to  prepare  the 
first  round  of  flip,  which  even  this  committee  would  expect,  with  equal 
parts  of  rum  and  water,  the  next  with  more  rum,  and  the  next  mostly 
rum.  The  committee  soon  after  their  arrival  partook  of  the  flip,  which 
their  pastor  ordered,  after  which  they  made  known  the  nature  of  their 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  117 

had  a  paralyzing  effect,  in  spreading  "  roots  of  bitterness," 
and  of  tending  to  make  Presbyterianism  still  more  exten- 
sively an  exotic  in  New  England.  In  view  of  their  posi- 
tion, the  authors  of  the  "  Rejoinder  "  near  the  close  of  it, 
say,  "  The  reason  why  we  keep  up  a  church  government 
and  administrations,  in  some  things  difierent  from  our 
fellow-Christians  in  the  country  where  we  live,  is  not  from 
any  fond  desire  of  singularity,  but  because  we  are  con- 
scientiously persuaded  that  these  are  most  conformable  to 
the  Scripture  platform,  and  have  the  most  effectual  ten- 
dency to  promote  purity  of  faith  and  practice."  This 
"  reason  "  has  grown  manifold  stronger  in  a  century,  not 
only  in  view  of  the  growth  of  Arminianism,  Pelagianism, 
Universalism,  Arianism,  Socinianism,  Transcendentalism, 
Spiritism,  Spiritualism,  Infidelity  and  Atheism,  but  also 
by  the  introduction  among  the  professed  adhering  Ortho- 
dox descendants  of  the  Puritans  of  "  German  doubts,  con- 
jectures, negations  and  hypotheses  "  into  "  the  country 
where  we  live."  While  the  townsmen  of  Pelham  could 
not  obtain,  as  easily  as  they  desired,  baptism  for  their 
children,  the  professing  Christians  among  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  of  to-day,  either  have  very  few  of  this  "  heritage  " 
of  God,  or  care  but  little  about  having  the  seal  of  his  cove- 
errand.  The  pastor  admitted  that  there  might  be  need  of  the  reproof, 
and  that  he  would  be  governed  by  it.  Then  came  the  second  round  of 
flip,  and,  as  the  business  liad  been  dispatched,  the  committee  were  dis- 
posed to  be  talkative  and  social  with  the  pastor  who  had  so  humbly  ad- 
mitted his  sin  at  their  rebuke.  The  flip  came  around  the  third  time, 
and  it  is  said  near  sunrise  the  next  morning  two  of  the  committee  man- 
aged to  reach  their  homes,  but  the  third  lay  prone  on  the  floor,  unable 
to  stir  from  the  effects  of  the  flip,  until  broad  daylight.  At  the  adjourned 
church  meeting,  when  this  committee  made  their  report,  it  is  said  they 
made  a  very  concise  report  of  their  visit  to  the  pastor,  and  the  kindly 
way  in  which  he  received  the  reproof,  by  reporting:  "We  have  called 
on  the  pastor,  as  directed,  and  he  gave  us  Christian  satisfaction." 

As  his  name  appears  upon  the  Eecords  of  Presbytery,  the  Rev. 
Kichard  Graham  succeeded  Mr.  Abercrombie  in  Pelham  before  1770, 
and  on  May  29th,  1771,  Presbytery  made  a  request  to  each  congregation 
for  aid  for  Mr.  Graham's  widow  and  family.  Down  to  1775  Pelham 
received  supply  from  Presbytery. 

On  September  27th,  1786,  Pelham  requested  some  assistance  and  sup- 
ply from  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  of  Londonderry.  On 
May  30th,  1792,  this  people  requested  supply' from  the  Associate  Re- 
formed Presbytery  of  New  England.  September  11th,  1793,  Mr.  Oliver 
was  installed  as  their  pastor. 


118  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

nant  placed  upon  those  whom  they  nurture,  perhaps, 
without  it,  "  in  the  admonition  of  the  Lord."  For,  says 
the  Christian  Instructor  of  Phihidelphia,  of  May  15th,  1875, 
"  In  more  than  two  hundred  Congregational  churches,  of 
Massachusetts,  there  were  no  baptisms  of  infants  hist  year. 
The  same  is  true  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  Congrega- 
tional churches  in  Maine." 

As  a  thunder-storm  tends  to  purify  the  atmosphere,  so 
these  controversies  and  "  vain  janglings,"  even  while  "  the 
wrath  of  man  will  not  work  tlie  righteousness  of  God," 
had  to  some  extent  the  effect  of  bringing  back  the  parties 
to  the  anchorage  from  which  they  were  drifting.  Better 
counsels  appear,  at  this  date,  to  have  increasingly  pre- 
vailed, and  at  a  meeting  held  in  Boston,  on  May  16th, 
1758,  "  all  the  ministers  and  probationers  present,  being 
required  by  the  Presbytery,  did  readily  subscribe  the 
Westminster  Standards." 

We  have  seen  that  the  Rev.  Joseph  Harvey  was  or- 
dained by  the  Londonderry  Presbytery,  at  Palmer,  Massa- 
chusetts, on  June  5th,  1734,  and  that  with  Moorehead  he 
was  suspended  by  the  same  court  in  1736.  What  corre- 
spondence, if  any,  was  kept  up  between  him  and  Moore- 
head and  McGregor,  is  unknown.  One  thing  is  certain, 
he  did  not  unite  in  forming  the  Boston  Presbytery,  and 
whether  he  was  restored  by  his  Presbytery  or  not,  he  con- 
tinued to  live  and  labor  in  Palmer. 

He  does  not,  however,  appear  to  have  conformed  to  the 
Scripture  requirement — ''A  bishop  must  be  blameless,  the 
husband  of  one  wife."  Hence,  his  usefulness  was  im- 
paired and  his  pastoral  labors  Avere  cut  short*  Where 
there  is  no  "  present  distress,"  a  minister,  if  he  have  com- 
mon-sense and  understands  human  nature,  so  soon  as  he 
can  "  provide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men,"  will 
be  one  of  the  first  to  know  that  "  it  is  not  good  that  the 
man  should  be  alone." 

Mr.  Harvey  does  not  appear  to  have  made  this  discov- 
ery, and  after  a  ministry,  which  otherwise,  so  far  as  we 
know,  was,  and  might  have  continued  to  be,  largely  use- 
ful, he  fell  under  temptation,  and,  "  as  the  result  of  a  diffi- 
culty between  him  and  his  church,  arising  from  a  scandal 
between  him  and  a  female,"  he  was  dismissed  in  1748. 

At  the  stated  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of  Boston,  at 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  119 

Newberry,  on  August  14th,  1753,  T^Ir.  Robert  Burns,  a  licen- 
tiate from  the  north  of  Ireland,  was  admitted,  '"promising 
subscription  to  the  Standards  when  required."  From  his 
immediate  appointment  to  "  supply  in  Palmer  till  next 
sederunt,"  but,  from  the  fact,  in  connection  with  it,  that 
the  "  Rev.  Mr.  Abercrombie  moderate  in  a  call  for  him  in 
said  Palmer,  some  convenient  time  before  next  meeting," 
it  is  nearly  certain,  that  he  had  previously  preached  there 
and  that  they  had  expressed  a  desire  for  his  settlement 
over  them. 

In  proof  of  this,  the  adjourned  meeting  of  Presbytery 
was  "  on  desire  of  several  members  of  Presbytery  convened 
at  Boston  on  October  18th,  appointed  to  be  held  in  Pal- 
mer instead  of  Boston." 

They  met  there,  and  after  an  examination,  during  a  part 
of  two  days,  on  the  15th  day  of  November,  1753,  he  was 
ordained  and  installed  as  pastor  of  said  church.  The  con- 
gregation, it  would  appear,  came  voluntarily  to  the  Pres- 
bytery. They,  while  a  vacancy,  had  not  been  very  satis- 
factorily supplied,  for  we  find  that  "  at  a  vote  taken  on 
August  23d,  1754,"  the  claim  of  a  Mr.  Kniblows,  then  un- 
paid, was  decided  in  a  very  discriminating  manner,  but 
one  which  might  puzzle  many  a  modern  congregation  to 
imitate,  and  ought  to  prove  suggestive  to  the  occupants 
of  the  pulpit. 

"  He  was  charged  with  preaching  other  men's  sermons. 
He  was  to  have  four  pounds  sixteen  shillings,  which  was 
eight  shillings  lawful  money  for  each  sermon,"  and  after 
due  examination  he  was  paid  at  this  rate  for  all,  "  except- 
ing three,  which  we  can  prove  were  other  men's  sermons." 
Mr.  Burns  was  duly  dismissed  from  Palmer  on  May  5th, 
1758. 

We  have  seen  that  at  the  organization  of  the  Presbytery 
(April  16th,  1745),  a  letter  was  received  from  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  toAvn  of  Coleraine,  Massachusetts,  requesting  to 
be  taken  under  their  care. 

This  parish,  settled  about  1736,  was  then  a  frontier  set- 
tlement and  originally  called  Boston  Township,  probably 
because  many  of  the  pioneers  were  from  that  place  ;  others 
were  from  Ireland,  Londonderry,  New  Hampshire;  Wo- 
burn,  Sto'./,  Roxbury  and  Pelham,  Massachusetts.  For 
them,  ss  early  as  1742,  Mr.  James  Fairservice  (formerly 


120  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

from  Mr.  Moorehead's  church),  built  the  first  grist-mill. 
Tliey  erected  a  meeting-house  in  1742. 

Being  disappointed,  as  stated,  in  not  obtaining  the  ser- 
vices of  Mr.  Graham,  Presbytery  still  gave  them  supply. 
They  also  occasionally  experienced  the  dangers  of  frontier 
life.  In  May,  1746,  Matthew  Clarke,  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ter were  fired  upon  b}^  the  Indians.  He  was  killed,  and 
his  wife  and  daughter  were  carried  to  the  fort. 

This  is  a  specimen  of  what  was  not  uncommon  in  re- 
claiming the  wilderness  from  savage  man.  The  fort 
usually  preceded  the  church. 

Tliis  town  was  Presbyterian  from  its  commencement. 
The  name  was  given  to  it  in  honor  of  Lord  Coleraine,  who 
handsomely  and  gratefully  presented  to  them  a  church 
bell,  which,  "through  the  unfaithfulness  of  the  agent,  was 
kept  in  Boston,  where  (says  Barber)  it  is  believed  to  still 
exist  and  to  be  in  use  in  one  of  the  churches." 

This  was  one  of  the  ways  in  which  Presbyterianism  was 
not  promoted  in  the  colony. 

The  supply  which  Presbytery  was  able  to  afTord  was  but 
limited,  while  their  requests  were  frequent  and  earnest. 
At  length,  on  June  4th,  1750,  "  the  Presbytery  appointed 
Mr.  Abercrombie  to  visit  them,  and,  if  he  find  it  expedient, 
he  is  to  ordain  elders  among  them,"  and  in  1751  they  had 
made  out  a  call  for  Mr.  Daniel  Mitchell  to  become  their 
pastor.  This,  from  the  want  of  order,  was  not  sustained 
on  March  17th,  1752,  and  a  new  moderation  was  then 
granted. 

At  the  same  meeting  Mr.  Alexander  McDowell,  after 
having  satisfactorily  sustained  the  prescribed  "trials," 
and  having  subscribed  his  adherence  to  the  Westminster 
Standards,  was  admitted  as  a  probationer  for  the  holy 
ministry,  and  was  now  appointed  for  some  Sabbaths 
among  other  places  (Rutland,  Kingston  and  New  Rutland) 
to  Coleraine. 

On  August  14th,  1753,  he  accepted  the  call  from  this 
town,  and  was,  on  September  28th  following,  by  a  commit- 
tee of  Presbytery,  ordained  and  installed  as  their  pastor. 

He  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  and  probably  the  first 
graduate  of  Harvard  College  who  entered  the  'Presbyterian 
ministry.  His  pastorate  began  with  promise,  i,ut  the  in- 
fluence of  artificial  appetite  in  a  few  years  bligrited  his 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  121 

prospects  of  usefulness,  and  he  was  dismissed  for  intemper- 
ance in  1761. 

On  June  30th,  1761,  this  town  was  incorporated. 

We  now  direct  our  attention  to  another  phase  of  ecclesi- 
astical development  by  which  Presbyterianism  was  intro- 
duced into  the  tow^n  of  Easton,  Mass.  Their  second  Con- 
gregationalist  pastor,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Belcher,  died  in 
1744.  During  his  ministry,  and,  so  far  as  he  knew,  during 
the  ministry  of  his  predecessor  (the  Rev.  Matthew  Short), 
the  society  had  no  church  covenant. 

As  this  instrument  forms  the  vitalizing  bond  of  the  de- 
nomination, Mr.  Belcher  declared  to  a  committee  who 
waited  on  him  on  the  subject,  that  the  society  had  "  no 
records,  no  covenant  and  no  church."  On  April  6th,  1747, 
they  subscribed  one.  What  their  fellowship  with  surround- 
ing churches  had  previously  been  is  not  stated  in  their 
records,  if  they  had  any,  but  from  the  fact  that  they  had 
had  two  pastors  settled  in  the  usual' form,  we  may  infer 
that  matters  in  their  church  were  no  more  loosely  managed 
than  in  some  others. 

On  August  28th,  1747,  they  voted  to  call  the  Rev.  Solo- 
mon Prentice,  who  was  installed  on  the  18th  day  of  No- 
vember following.  "August  18th,  1748,  voted,  that  we  are 
a  Congregational  church."     (Rec.  of  date.) 

In  a  difficulty  which  arose  in  1748  about  who  have  a 
right  to  baptism,  it  was  voted  that  ''  Presbyterians  coming 
with  certificates  may  obtain  it."  ''  Two  elders  were  chosen 
June  16th,  1749."  Troubles  now  arose  about  the  location 
of  a  new  meeting-house,  in  which  "the  select  men  re- 
quested Mr.  Prentice  to  attend  worship  on  November  20th, 
1750." 

Why,  instead  of  occupying  this  house  statedly,  he 
preached  for  four  successive  Sabbaths  at  two  or  more  pri- 
vate houses  alternately,  does  not  fully  appear,  but  in  1751 
he  met  with  his  friends  in  it,  while  a  party  was  formed  who 
"  charged  him  with  inconsistency,"  and  on  May  20th,  1751, 
charges  against  him  were  preferred  by  Deacon  Hayward 
and  others.  As  it  exhibits  the  working  ability  of  the 
church  polity  ahvays  prevailing  in  New  England,  I  quote 
fvoui  tlieir  records : 

"  October  17th,  1752,  the  church  met.  Voted  affirma- 
tively and  unanimously  '  Considering  the  brokenness  of  the 


122  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Constitution  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  New  England 
(this  church  being  hitlierto  professedly  one;,  because  the 
churches  themselves  don't  stand  b}',  but  occasionally,  and 
as  cases  suit,  break  in  upon  their  Constitution,  whereb}^  an 
injured  church  or  brother  cannot  obtain  right  (as  we  can 
see),  witness  the  dei)lorable  state  of  the  church  of  Christ  in 
this  place  by  the  acts  of  Council,  whicii  the  disaffected 
brethren  of  this  church  have  called  :  To  renounce  and  come 
off  from  the  broken  Congregational  Constitution,  and  de- 
clare for,  and  come  in  with,  the  discipline  and  order  of  the 
renowned  Church  of  Scotland.'  "  Voted,  to  keep  a  day  of 
fasting,  and  to  request  "  the  Presbytery,  which  is  to  meet 
at  Londonderry  on  next  Tuesday,  to  assist  them  in  carry- 
ing on  said  fast."  Their  committee  reported  that  they 
"  were  favorably  received,  and  that  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Par- 
sons was  appointed  to  assist  them  on  the  22d  day  of  No- 
vember." Mr.  Prentice  on  "November  5th  (a  famous 
day)"  preached  for  the  last  time  in  the  old  church,  and 
"voted  previously,  on  November  2d,  that  on  November 
12th  and  tlienceforward,  we  will  attend  ordinances  in  the 
Presbyterian  meeting-house  in  Easton." 

"  The  church  made  a  declaration  to  the  town  for  coming 
off."  An  "  exparte  council  "  was  soon  afterwards  held,  but 
its  "result"  rather  made  bad  worse  in  the  community. 
The  Rev.  "  Mr.  Prentice,  as  a  Presbyterian  minister,  com- 
menced catechising  in  December,  1752."  ''March  7th, 
1753,  elected  four  ruling  elders  and  signed  for  Presbyte- 
rianism." 

Says  Mr.  Prentice :  "  I  preached  on  May  19th  all  day  at 
home,  and  on  Sabbath,  the  20th,  I  dispensed  the  sacrament 
in  the  Presbyterian  form.  My  wife  at  it.  We  had  a 
blessed  day.     I  preached  also  on  Monday,  the  21st." 

He  was  admitted  as  a  member  of  Presbytery  at  Boston 
on  IMay  15th,  1753.  At  Newbury,  on  August  14th,  the 
Presbytery  received  "a  letter  of  excuse  for  absence  from 
the  Rev.  S.  Prentice  of  Easton,"  and  on  the  28th  of  Sep- 
tember following,  he  and  his  elder.  Mr.  Hartwell,  assisted 
at  the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  A.  McDowell. 

At  the  meeting  of  Presb'.'tery  at  Easton  on  November 
12th,  1754,  on  their  minutes  it  is  recorded :  "  The  reason 
why  the  meeting  was  not  opened  with  a  sermon  as  usual, 
was  because  no  public  intimation  had  been  given,  Mr. 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  123 

Prentice  not  being  acquainted  with  the  custom  of  the 
Presbytery  herein." 

He  had  not  been  a  Presbyterian  formerly,  and  under 
this  order  of  church  government  his  "  course  "  was  short, 
for  on  the  next  day  he  was  arraigned  by  the  court  on  com- 
plaint of  four  persons,  members  of  his  church. 

'^First.  For  countenancing  vagrant  lay  teachers,  particu- 
larly in  his  own  house  in  December  last." 

The  Presbytery  judged  that  said  conduct  is  of  dangerous 
tendency  to  the  interests  of  true  religion,  and  deserves  a 
severe  rebuke. 

^^Secondhj.  It  is  the  judgment  of  the  Presbytery  that  the 
expiration  of  the  time  of  the  concert  for  prayer  in  Scotland 
is  no  argument  that  the  millennium  is  commenced,  and 
that  Mr.  Prentice  should  be  cautioned  against  advancing 
any  such  opinions  about  the  millennium  as  may  prove 
hurtful  to  the  interests  of  true  religion." 

"  Presbytery  judged  that  he  should  be  rebuked,  particu- 
larly for  the  first  article,  and  restored,  if  humble.  If  not, 
that  he  should  be  suspended  till  next  Presbytery."  He 
would  not  submit  and  was  accordingly  suspended.  Sup- 
ply was  then  appointed  to  Easton,  but,  as  the  records  of 
Presbytery  are  discontinued  or  lost  after  the  next  meeting 
on  April  16th,  1755,  at  Pelham,  for  fifteen  years,  we  learn 
nothing  farther  from  them  of  Presbyterianism  in  this  town. 
The  domestic  history  of  this  man  presents  one  curious 
phase.  His  wife  had,  under  the  influences  of  the  "  vagrant 
lay  teachers "  (who  appear  to  have  been  by  him  coun- 
tenanced for  several  years),  without  his  knowledge  and 
consent,  been  immersed.  Hence,  on  his  record  he  leaves 
this  statement : 

"Sarah  Prentice  Ipsa  Anabaptista  Immersa  Indignis- 
simo  Laco,  viz.:  Dec.  5th,  1750,  absente  marito."  "Sarah 
Prentice  had  herself  baptized  again  by  immersion  in  a 
small  lake,  viz. :  December  5th,  1750,  in  the  absence  of  her 
husband." 

Whether  she  had  returned  to  his  views  or  not,  she  joined 
with  his  church  at  the  communion  on  May  20th,  1753, 
and  it  is  probable  that  he  had  allowed  his  kindness  to  con- 
quer his  judgment  when  he  had  again  particularly  coun- 
tenanced them  in  his  own  house  in  December,  1753.  In 
view  of  the  action  of  Presbytery,  he  writes : 


124  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

"  Because  I  received  a  few  of  my  fellow-creatures  (and  fel- 
low-Christians, so  far  as  I  know)  into  my  house,  and  suffered 
them  to  pray  and  talk  about  the  Scriptures,  and  could  not 
make  any  acknowledgment  thereof  to  some  of  my  brethren 
that  were  offended  thereat,  nor  to  the  Presbytery,  I  have  been 
suspended  from  the  discharge  of  my  ministry  until  next 
April,  and  because  by  said  vote  I  was  deprived  of  my 
small  subsistence  which  I  have  among  my  people  in  Eas- 
ton,  I  thought  it  necessary  for  the  honor  of  God  and  the 
good  of  my  family  to  remove  with  my  family  to  Grafton, 
N.  H.,  which  accordingly  was  done  April  9th,  1755. 

"  N.  B. — I  have  never  heard  a  word  from  the  Presbytery, 
neither  by  letter  or  otherwise,  nor  they  from  me,  from  the 
day  of  my  suspension  to  this  day,  viz. :  September  5th, 
1755.  "  Sol.  Prentice." 

There  appears  thus  to  have  been  in  their  official  inter- 
course with  him  at  least  as  much  of  the  fortiter  in  re  as  of 
the  suaviter  in  modo,  while  it  cannot  be  supposed  very 
probable  that  he  "  entertained  angels  unawares." 

This  Presbytery  then  required  those  who  took  "care  of 
the  house  of  God  "  to  be  discriminating  in  their  hospital- 
ity, especially  with  "  unruly  and  vain  talkers,  who  crept 
into  houses  and  led  away  silly  women." 

Existence  was  not  always  and  only  with  the  Presbytery 
a  matter  of  administration,  of  receiving  petitions,  granting 
moderations,  examining  candidates,  ordaining  ministers, 
receiving  congregations,  or  of  suspending  pastors.  They 
at  times,  also,  considered  their  ecclesiastical  position  and 
disadvantages. 

There  was  at  this  period  no  Synod  nearer  to  them  than 
New  York.  They  were  not  connected  with  any,  and  while 
nearly  all  of  the  members  of  Presbytery  were  from  Ireland, 
still  they  hej^i  in  remembrance  their  mother  church,  tlio 
Church  of  Scotland. 

To  inform  her  of  their  position  and  enlist  her  sympa- 
thies, at  their  meeting  in  Boston  on  August  13th,  1751,  "'  it 
was  agreed  that  an  address  should  be  sent  from  this  Pres- 
bytery to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
relating  to  the  common  cause  or  interest  of  Presbyterians 
in  New  England." 

What  said  address  was,  if  it  were  ever  prepared,  when 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  125 

sent,  and  what  its  reception,  consequences  and  fruits  were, 
their  minutes  do  not  say. 

By  this  agreement,  however,  they  manifest  zeal  in  their 
distinctive  work  and  respect  for  the  venerable  kirk,  as 
most  of  them  were  trained  in  her  schools  of  the  prophets. 
They  had  in  her  also,  beside  the  accident  of  origin,  occa- 
sionally an  indirect  interest,  by  the  admission  of  individu- 
als from  her  fellowship.  As  noticed,  a  Mr.  Alexander 
Boyd,  from  Glasgow,  had  been  by  them  licensed  on  June 
15th,  1748.  From  the  infant  church  of  Kingston,  N.  H., 
a  call  for  his  labors  was  presented  on  March  14th,  1749. 
This  was  on  May  2d  sustained  and  recommended  to  him 
for  acceptance,  and  on  August  14th  they  "  received  from 
Georgetown,  eastward,  a  call  to  him  with  an  attested  copy 
of  the  vote  of  the  town,  relating  to  his  temporal  support." 
Difficulties  now  beset  him.  He  had  to  appear  before 
Presbytery  at  Londonderry  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  Octo- 
ber. There  he  "  acknowledged  his  irregular  marriage  with 
Mary  Buchan,  confessed  his  sorrow  for  the  offence  he  had 
thereby  given,  and  declared  his  resolution  to  adhere  to  her 
as  his  wife."  He  stated  that  "he  had  written  for  her,  and 
also  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  McLaurin,  of  Glasgow,  declaring  his 
grief  for  the  offence  which  he  had  given  that  congregation, 
and  moreover,  that  he  stood  ready  to  give  the  Presbyter}^ 
whatever  further  satisfaction  was  needful  to  remove  the 
offence,  either  for  being  married  in  a  clandestine  way,  or 
in  concealing  his  marriage  from  the  Presbytery  when  taken 
on  trials  by  them,  etc.,  etc."  They  "  rebuked  him  sharply," 
and  as  they  could  not  proceed  to  any  higher  censure,  they 
gave  him  employment  and  reserved  his  case  for  future 
consideration. 

In  view  of  the  above  case,  as  Mr.  Boyd  did  not  appear 
at  their  meeting  in  Boston  on  the  14th  of  August,  the 
Presbytery  returned,  to  the  respective  congregations,  the 
calls  which  had  by  them  been  made  in  his  favor.  He 
fulfilled  his  appointments  from  year  to  year,  but  "  he 
could  not  altogether  vindicate  himself"  on  May  14th, 
1751,  when  they  "  saw  fit  to  give  him  a  gentle  reproof,"  to 
which  he  submitted,  and  they  continued  him  as  supply. 
A  renewed  call  from  Georgetown  was  by  him  accepted  on 
November  13th,  1751,  but,  owing  to  new  difficulties,  his 
ordination  was  from  time  to  time  deferred^  until,  on  Octo- 


126  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ber  29tli,  1752,  it  was  "  delayed  till  spring,  when  the  peo- 
ple there  were  to  give  light  to  the  Presbytery  in  the  case." 
Their  light  does  not  appear  to  liave  proved  siilficient,  and 
we  again  find  that  "among  the  Newcastle,  Maine,  papers, 
at  a  meeting,  at  Boston,  on  May  14th,  1754,  is  a  call  for 
Mr.  Boyd."  "The  commissioners  from  Newcastle"  in- 
tended to  have  met  Presbytery  on  the  matters  of  his  set- 
tlement among  them,  at  Newbury  on  August  20th,  1754, 
"  but  in  Providence  they  were  frustrated  by  contrary  winds, 
and  they  had  no  objections  against  Mr.  Boyd's  ordination." 

This  took  place  at  New])ury,  Mass.,  on  September  19th, 
1754,  by  a  committee  consisting  of  Messrs.  Moorehead, 
McGregor  and  Parsons,  and  it  is  recorded  that  "  the  sol- 
emnity concluded  by  sinofirig  a  part  of  the  132d  Psalm." 

His'  installation  was  also  performed  by  a  committee  of 
Presbytery.  The  community  was  a  mixed  one,  and  al- 
though the  majority  of  the  town  were  Presbyterians,  the 
Congregationalists,  led  on  by  Mr.  Winslow,  so  disturbed  his 
peace,  that  he  finally  left  Newcastle  in  1758.  A  similar 
irritation  had  probably  prevented  his  settlement  at  George- 
town, which  may  possibly  have  been  aided  by  ecclesiasti- 
cal discord,  as  Mr.  McClenahan,  of  the  Londonderry  Pres- 
bytery, had  previously  labored  in  that  precinct,  and  his 
friends  would  form  no  strong  attachment,  either  to  Mr. 
Boyd  or  to  his  ecclesiastical  connection.  "  The  Presbyte- 
rian minister  left  Georgetown  in  1752  "  (Willis),  and  when 
"  in  1764,  the  Rev.  Alexander  Boyd  revisited  Georgetown, 
he  found  that  the  people  had  letVPresbyterianism."  (lb.) 

Two  distinct  species  of  church  government  can  never 
cordially  dwell  together.  Every  ecclesiastical  form  of 
thought,  and  every  idea  of  governmental  order  forbids  it. 
"  Two  cannot  walk  together,"  much  less  dwell  together, 
"  unless  they  are  agreed." 

At  their  meeting  in  Boston,  on  August  14th,  1749,  Pres- 
bytery received  a  petition  from  Voluntown,  Ct.,  with  a 
number  of  papers  relative  to  it,  and  on  the  15th  they  say : 
"Whereas  several  applications  have  been  made  to  this 
Presbytery  at  different  times,  by  a  number  of  people  in 
Voluntown,  the  case  concerning  which  appearing  to  us  in 
such  a  light,  that,  if  the  majority  comply  with  the  late 
proposals  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dorrance,  the  Presbytery  shall 
then  be  willing  to  assist  in  settling  a  minister  among  them, 


IX    NEW   ENGLAND.  127 

agreeably  to  said  proposal.  But  otherwise,  they  see  not 
at  present  how  they  can  concern  themselves  in  the  affairs 
of  Voluntown." 

The  case  was  probably  one  similar  to  that  of  Campbell 
or  McKinstry,  or  Graham,  an  attempt  to  identify  these 
two  discordant  species,  by  hiring  a  Presbyterian  minister 
to  perform  the  duties  of  a  Congregationalist  pastor. 

He  had  then  labored  in  Voluntown  (now  Sterling)  about 
twenty-five  years,  and  being  a  native  of  Ireland  and  a 
graduate  of  Glasgow  University,  his  habits  of  thought 
might  have  constrained  him  to  press  his  Presbyterian  ten- 
dencies too  strongly  upon  the  Congregational  portion  of 
his  church,  or  he  might  have  joined  the  First  Presbytery 
since  1736,  and  a  portion  of  his  people  might  have  now 
sought  connection  with  the  Boston  Presbytery.  It  is  more 
probable,  however,  that  his  attachment  to  his  early  eccle- 
siastical principles  was  now  not  a  little  abated  by  his  posi- 
tion and  surroundings,  and  that  consequently  an  increas- 
ing number  of  his  people  might  desire  the  settling  of  a 
Presbyterian  minister  as  their  pastor.  Hence  they  must 
comply  with  the  late  proposals  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dorrance. 
This  "  number  of  his  people  "  were,  however,  for  some  time 
afterwards  Presbyterians. 

As  we  have  seen,  emigration  and  domestic  increase  com- 
bined, induced  the  settlers  of  Derry  and  other  towns  to 
send  pioneers  into  the  wilderness,  and  we  now  trace  briefly 
the  settlement  of  the  town  of  Peterboro,  N.  H.  This 
was  first  attempted  in  1739.  In  1744,  under  the  alarm  of 
war,  their  clearings  and  homes  were  abandoned  until  the 
peace  of  1749.  In  1752  they  built  a  meeting-house,  and 
in  1759  there  were  forty-five  or  fifty  families  in  the  town, 
which  was  incorporated  in  1760.  The  Rev.  William  John- 
ston, formerly  of  Worcester  and  W^indham,  came  to  them 
in  1752  and  remained  about  one  3'ear,  when  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Harvey  supplied  them  for  a  time.  They  met  on  July  18th, 
1760,  "  to  see  if  the  town  would  embrace  the  present  op- 
portunity of  sending  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kinkead  (who  was 
then  probably  at  Windham,  N.  H.)  to  Philadelphia  to  the 
Synod  or  Presbytery  there,  for  a  supply  or  gospel  minis- 
ter to  preach.  Voted ;  and  also  voted,  not  to  mention  any 
certain  sum  for  encouragement,  but,  that  if  any  came,  he 
should  be  treated  like  a  gentleman."     "  In  1761,  voted  to 


128  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

raise  £150  for  the  support  of  the  gospel,"  and  a  committee 
were  appointed  "  to  invite  regular  ministers,  and  renew 
the  supplication  to  the  Synod  of  PhiladeljDhia." 

A  Mr.  Powers  supplied  them  in  1764,  and  on  January 
8d  of  that  year  the  town  "  voted  to  commission  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Morrow  to  send  us  a  minister  when  he  returned  to 
Ireland,  and  that  he  should  have  a  good  new  beaver  hat 
if  he  would  accept  this  commission.  Eight  persons  pro- 
tested against  sending  to  Ireland."  At  a  subsequent  meet- 
ing "  it  was  voted  to  authorize  the  Rev.  Mr.  Morrow  to  act 
with  full  power  to  send  a  faithful  minister  of  the  gospel — 
a  C'llvinistic  of  the  Presbyterian  Constitution.  Mr.  Mor- 
row should  receive  eight  dollars  for  liis  service."  He  did 
not  succeed,  for  none  came ;  and  in  March,  1765,  they 
"  voted  to  commission  Hugh  Wilson  to  go  to  Philadelphia 
or  elsewhere  on  this  continent,  to  obtain  a  gospel  minister," 

In  May,  1766,  a  Mr.  John  Morrison  landed  in  Boston. 
He  was  born  in  Pathfoot,  in  Scotland,  in  1743,  and  gradu- 
ated at  Edinburgh  in  1765.  On  November  26th,  1766,  he 
was  ordained  a-t  Peterboro  by  the  Boston  Presbytery, 
the  original  Londonderry  Presbytery  being  then  dissolved, 
for  it  may  be  here  mentioned  that  "  in  1765  (according  to 
Webster),  the  Dutchess  Presbytery  at  Cherry  Valley,  New 
York,  received  the  Rev.  Samuel  Dunlop,  a  former  member 
of  the  Presbytery  to  the  eastward  of  Boston,"  which,  when 
he  left  "  was  terminated,  being  incapable  of  sitting  by  rea- 
son of  dispersion."  Also  the  Rev.  W^illiam  Johnston,  who 
*'was  born  in  Dublin  in  1713,  educated  and  studied  the- 
ology in  Edinburgh  (who  married  a  Miss  Cummins,  a 
fellow-passenger),  and  labored  as  we  have  seen  in  Worces- 
ter, Mass.;  in  Peterboro  and  Windham,  N.  H. ;  about  this 
time  moved  to  the  region  of  Schenectady,  bought  a  large 
tract  of  land  near  Cherry  Valley,  and  according  to  docu- 
mental history,  gathered  a  number  of  families  of  Scotch 
and  Irish  descent  about  him. 

"His  papers,  goods,  etc.,  were  burned  at  the  massacre  at 
Cherry  Valley."  Some  of  his  descendants  now  occupy 
prominent  positions  of  usefulness  in  the  State  of  New 
York. 

Thus,  in  a  rivalry  of  twenty  years'  duration,  the  first 
Presbytery  "  finished  its  course."  Such  is  the  power  of 
sectarian  rancor,  that  the   nearer  divisions  are  to  each 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  129 

other,  their  antipathies  are  usually  or  often  strong  in  ad- 
verse proportion — they  "  bite  and  devour  one  another," 
and  are  at  least  at  times  "  consumed  one  of  another." 
These  two  did  not  now  say,  "  We  are  brethren ;  let  there 
be  no  strife  between  us,  for  the  Canaanite  and  Perrizite 
dwell  in  the  land." 

The  extinction  of  the  original  Presbytery  was  a  natural 
result  of  expediency  and  conciliation,  of  a  compromise  with 
principle. 

The  disease  began  in  the  Hillhouse  case,  and  with  all  the 
undying  grasp  of  the  leprosy,  permeated  the  Presbytery, 
while  those  who  stood  on  Presbyterian  principles  under  all 
the  disadvantages  and  odium  of  suspension,  and  even  at 
times  inconsistent  outbursts  of  passion,  amidst  all  their 
difficulties  survived  and  grew.  Presbyterianism,  from  the 
ordination  of  Timothy  down  to  the  present  hour,  never 
gained  any  permanent  good  by  compromise.  When  it  em- 
braced the  prison  and  the  stake,  "  the  blood  of  the  martyrs 
became  the  seed  of  the  church."  But  when  the  London- 
derry Presbytery  bowed  dow'n  to  expediency,  custom,  to 
popular  opinion  (the  great  "  image  set  up  in "  New 
England),  "  rottenness  entered  into  its  bones,"  and  sep- 
ulture became  only  a  question  of  time.  The  terror  held  up 
by  LeMercier,  and  sanctioned  by  the  majority  of  his  Pres- 
bytery in  1736,  W'as  that  "to  receive  Mr.  Hillhouse  w^ould 
make  Presbytery  very  ridiculous  in  the  e3'es  of  the  people 
of  New  England  "  (p.  55).  By  recognizing  the  action  of 
the  "  council  "  in  his  case  as  valid,  said  Presbytery  basked 
under  the  sunshine  of  popular  favor  for  less  than  thirty 
years,  then  committed /efo  de  se,  and  had  a  burial  so  deep 
that  we  cannot  find  its  records,  epitaph  nor  mourners.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  principle  advocated  b}^  the  minority, 
that  to  receive  a  man  "who  had  "  received  his  ordination  be- 
fore he  came  to  the  colonies  as  a  member  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  "  (p.  54),  even  when  he  had  hired  himself  to  do 
congregational  service,  and  served  the  people  until  an  "  ex- 
parte  council  "  "  ordered  him  to  resign  his  office,"  shewed  a 
principle  of  vitality  and  consistency,  which,  while  it  made 
those  Avho  held  it  "  very  ridiculous  in  the  eyes  of  the  peo- 
ple of  New  England,"  has,  under  "the  good-will  of  him 
who  dwelt  in  the  bush  "  (Deut.  xxxiii.  16),  extensively 
maintained  "the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus^"  and  perpet- 
9 


130  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

uated  its  existence  in  the  bounds  of  that  Presbytery 
until  to-day.  Presbyterianism,  wherever  or  whenever 
it  refuses  to  meet  its  opponents  in  any  "  of  the  vilhiges 
in  the  plain  of  Ono,"  and  goes  "up  to  Jerusalem  unto 
the  apostles  and  elders  about  this  (or  any)  question," 
is  always  "  strong  in  the  Lord."  Whenever  it  tampers 
with  principle,  and  bows  down  at  the  clamor,  or  for  the 
favor  of  the  multitude,  it  becomes  like  Samson,  sliorn  of 
his  locks,  weak  as  expediency  itself.  Its  "glory  is  de- 
parted." 

The  history  of  Morrison  is  a  lamentable  one.  "  He  was 
the  first  settled  minister  in  the  town  of  Peterboro,  N.  H. 
Although  he  was  possessed  of  more  than  ordinary  talent, 
he  soon  proved  to  be  intem})erate  and  licentious.  Pres- 
bytery suspended  him  for  a  time  from  his  office,  and 
finally  terminated  his  pastorate  and  ministry  in  March, 
1772.  He  then  visited  South  Carolina;  returned  and 
joined  the  American  army  at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1775. 
He  soon  after  went  over  to  the  British,  and  remained  with 
them  till  his  death,  which  took  i)lace  at  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  on  Dec.  10th,  1782"  {Hist,  of  Pet).  "Deceitful 
men  shall  not  live  out  half  their  days."  "Strono;  drink  is 
raging."  He  became  a  professed  atheist,  and  died  an 
abandoned  profligate."  Reader,  "who  maketh  thee  to 
differ  ?  "  The  frequent  attention  given,  by  Presbytery  in 
watch  and  care  to  his  case  will  be  subsequently  noticed. 

Windham  was  another  town  which  during  this  quarter 
of  a  century  was  settled  by  Presbyterians.  It  had  pre- 
viously formed  a  part  of  Londonderry,  and  was  incorpor- 
ated in  1742.  In  1747  the  Rev.  Wm.  Johnston  was  in- 
stalled pastor,  and  the  ruling  elders  wore  then  Messrs. 
Hemphill,  Kinkead  and  Kyle.  Simply  for  want  of  sup- 
port, the  pastor  was  dismissed  in  July,  1752. 

In  1753  a  meeting-house  was  erected,  and  on  applica- 
tion by  their  commissioner  to  the  Synod  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  the  Rev.  John  Kinkead  was,  as  their  pastor, 
installed  in  Oct.,  1760.  Although  he  possessed  respectable 
talents  and  acquirements  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  yet, 
not  maintaining  a  Christian  and  ministerial  deportment, 
and  being  chargeable  with  immoralities,  he  soon  lost  the 
confidence  and  respect  of  his  people,  and  was  dismissed  in 
April,  1765  (Parker).    It  thus  appears  that  both  Johnston 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  131 

and  Kinkead  were  here  installed  by  the  original  London- 
derry Presbytery,  and  as  Windham  was  orip^inally  a  part  of 
Derry  (or  the  old  parish^,  so  up  till  1765  their  affinities  held 
them  in  ecclesiastical  fellowship  with  the  Rev.  Wm,  David- 
son and  his  associates.  But  "  soon  after  the  dismission  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Kinkead,  the  parish  presented  a  call  to  Rev. 
Simon  Williams,  who  was  ordained  their  pastor  Dec,  1766, 
by  the  Boston  Presbytery.'^  (P.) 

As  has  been  noticed,  the  Rev.  Hugh  Campbell  and  the 
Rev.  Hugh  Henry  preached  in  Maine  from  1720  till  1724. 
The  former  "was  the  regular  minister  of  the  town"  of 
Sciu'boro  in  1720-21  on  "  a  salary  of  £50  (then  equal  to 
about  856.50  in  specie),  beside  his  meat,  drink,  washing 
and  lodging."  But  he  soon  left  on  account  of  the  small- 
ness  of  his  salary,  and  in  June,  1722,  the  town  unani- 
mously invited  the  Rev.  Hugh  Henry  to  become  their 
minister,  and  he  continued  with  them  till  1725.  From 
1728  till  his  death  in  1762,  tlie  Rev.  Mr.  Thompson  offici- 
ated as  town  minister,  and  during  that  period  the  congre- 
gation were  with  him  Congregationalists.  On  August  23d, 
1762,  the  church  called  Mr.  Thos.  Pierce  to  settle  in  tlie 
work  of  the  ministry  in  the  first  church  and  parish  in 
Scarboro,  and  "voted  that  Mr.  Thos.  Pierce  be  settled  in 
the  Presbyterian  order,  and  agreeably  to  the  Westminster 
Confession  of  Faith"  (CA.  Rec,  p.  15).  Mr.  Pierce  was 
born  in  Newbury,  Oct.  11th,  1737,  and  graduated  at 
Harvard  College  in  1759.  He  was  ordained  at  Newbury 
Port  on  Nov.  24th,  1762.  In  1763,  on  Sept.  22d,  four 
ruling  elders  were  elected  "  for  the  year."  Mr.  Pierce  in  a 
few  years  sunk  down  "as  a  common  drunkard,  although 
he  continued  to  preach  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  June 
26th,  1775.  Immediately  after  his  decease  the  church  re- 
nounced Presbyterianism  "  (Storer).  This  church  forms  a 
specimen  of  several  in  New  England,  which  for  years  had 
a  vibratory  existence  between  these  two  forms  of  polity, 
and  which  eventually  settled  down  into  Congregationalism 
— such  as  Chester,  Ackworth  and  Goffstown,  in  New 
Hampshire. 

During  a  part  of  this  time  at  least  (1743-1768)  the  Lon- 
donderry Presbytery  was  respectable  in  numbers — LeMer- 
cier,  Johnston,  McClenahan,  Harvey,  Caldwell,  Davidson, 
Wilson,   Rutherford,   Urquhart,    Dunlop,    and    probably 


132  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

others,  as  Clark,  of  Kingston,  belonged  to  it,  yet  it  did  not 
possess  vitality.  Beside  the  causes  of  its  decay  already 
stated,  they  had  no  means,  or  seem  not  to  have  taken  any 
pains  to  instruct  young  men  for  the  ministry. 

Some  of  them,  as  Davidson  and  Rutherford,  were  proba- 
bly not  a  little  "  unsound  in  the  faith,"  while  the  immorali- 
ties of  others,  such  as  Kinkead  and  Harvey,  were  highly 
injurious  to  Christianity.  In  these  twenty-five  years  the 
French  Church  and  others  became  extinct  by  the  assimila- 
tion of  their  members  and  their  offsj^ring  to  their  surround- 
ings. The  death  of  LeMercier  and  Rutherford,  and,  it  may 
l)e,  others,  the  removal  from  their  bounds  of  McClenahan, 
Johnston  and  Dunlop,  with  other  influences,  all  conspired 
to  blot  it  out  about  the  end  of  this  quarter  of  a  century, 
after  an  existence  of  about  forty  years.  Dunlop  appears 
to  have  been  connected  with  it  about  twenty-five  years. 
''  He  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  a  graduate  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  and  having  removed  in  1765  to  Cherry  Valley, 
N.  Y.,  at  the  massacre  of  that  place,  on  November  11th, 
1778,  his  family  were  slain.  He  alone,  with  one  daughter, 
escaped.  Under  the  protection  of  an  Indian  chief  Jie  stood 
and  beheld  the  destruction  of  his  earthl}^  hopes,  his  home 
and  the  homes  of  his  friends,  melting  away  with  the  flames. 
He  survived  the  massacre  but  a  short  time.  The  misfor- 
tunes of  that  day  carried  '  down  his  gray  hairs  with  sorrow 
to  the  grave.'"     (P.) 

The  reader  may  here  see  one  of  the  difficulties  of  the  au- 
thor in  preparing  this  history.  He  has  followed  Presbyte- 
rian writers  (Parker  and  Webster)  and  given  what  they 
have  presented  above,  stating  that  the  Rev.  Samuel  Dunlop 
was  a  graduate  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  that  when 
Lindesay  became  the  patentee  of  Cherry  Valley,  N.  Y.,  and 
located  there  in  1740,  he  "  induced  Dunlop  by  liberal 
off'ers  to  aid  the  settlement,"  which  he  did  by  influencing 
emigrants  to  come  from  Ireland  and  New  Hampshire,  that 
he  had  ministered  to  them  for  nearly  forty  years  {Parker^ 
198),  and  that  his  misfortunes  at  the  Cherry  Valley  mas- 
sacre in  1778  "  brought  down  his  gray  hairs  with  sorrow  to 
the  grave,"  that,  coming  from  New  England,  "he  was,  in 
1765,  received  by  the  Dutchess  Presbytery "  ( Webster), 
while  Greenleaf,  in  his  Ecclesiastical  Sketches  in  Mairie,  says : 
"The  Rev.  Samuel  Dunlop  was  born  in  Antrim  in  1715, 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  133 

made  M.  A.  at  Edinburgh  at  nineteen,  that  on  being 
licensed  he  came  to  America  in  1736,  that  he  was  ship- 
wrecked on  Sable  Island,  landed  at  Canso,  that  he  taught 
school  in  Dracut,  Mass.,  removed  to  Noblesboro,  in  Maine, 
that  he  resided  at  Booth  Bay,  Sheepscott  Bridge,  New  Cas- 
tle, and  then  in  Brunswick.  In  1747  he  was  ordained  in 
LeMercier's  meeting-house  in  Boston  for  Brunswick  (by  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  LeMercier,  Morton,  of  Coleraine,  Davidson, 
Wilson  and  McLenahan),  and  was  pastor  there  until  Octo- 
ber, 1760,  when  he  was  dismissed  (p.  95)  by  a  council  (  W., 
p.  33),  that  he  was  never  settled  again,  and  lived  in  Bruns- 
wick until  his  death,  June  26th,  1776,  that  his  history  is  in 
manuscript,  and  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Dunlop  fam- 
ily in  1821,  and  that  he  was  the  grandfather  of  the  ex- 
Governor  of  Maine  of  the  same  name." 

It  is  true  that  the  Rev.  S.  Dunlop  of  Cherry  Valley  per- 
suaded four  or  more  families  to  remove  from  Derry,  N.  H., 
to  that  place  (p.  195),  and  that  he  ministered  to  them  for 
nearly  forty  years  (p.  198),  and  just  as  true  that  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Dunlop  lived  from  1736  till  1776  in  New  England, 
and  consequently  never  "became  a  member  of  the 
Dutchess  Presbytery."     They  were  different  men. 

Among  other  towns  reclaimed  from  the  wilderness  dur- 
ing this  quarter  of  a  century  was  Bradford  (formerly  called 
Souhegan  East),  N.  H.  "  In  1750  they  gave  a  call  succes- 
gively  to  the  Rev.  Alexander  Boyd,  Rev.  Alexander  Mc- 
Dowell, and  to  Mr.  Samuel  McClintock,  but  in  each  case 
without  success.  A  meeting-house  was  erected  in  1755, 
and  on  September  28th,  1757,  the  Rev.  John  Houston  was 
ordained  by  the  Boston  Presbytery  pastor  of  this  church, 
which  had  been  organized  in  the  Presbyterian  order.  He 
was  born  in  Londonderry,  educated  at  Princeton,  N.  J., 
where  he  took  his  degree  in  1753,  and  studied  divinity 
with  the  Rev.  David  McGregor.  He  was  a  conscientious 
and  a  good  man."     (P.) 

During  this  quarter  of  a  century  a  change,  bearing  most 
extensively  upon  the  Presbyterian  interests  in  America, 
took  place  in  New  York,  and  as  a  prominent  member  of 
the  Boston  Presbytery  (the  Rev.  D.  McGregor)  became  an 
actor  in  it,  I  now  briefly  present  the  case : 

After  the  atrocious  oppression  of  the  Rev.  Francis 
Makemie  by  Lord  Cornbury  and  hit>  minions,  ^n  effort 


134  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

appears  to  have  been  made  to  have  Presb3"terian  preach- 
ing and  worship  in  the  English  language  maintained  in  that 
town.  We  find  the  case  referred  to  by  Vesey  (Albany 
Documents)  in  December,  1709,  when  writing  to  a  friend. 
He  says  "  that  the  dissenting  preacher  is  likely  to  gain  no 
ground."  His  stay  was  brief,  but  the  people  kept  together 
and  met  for  w^orship  with  few  interruptions  and  with 
a  gradual  increase  of  numbers  until  1716,  when  they  took 
measures  to  form  a  regular  congregation  ( IF.),  the  same 
year  (IF.)  in  which  the  French  Presbyterians  were  per- 
mitted to  erect  a  church  in  Boston.  The}^  called  a  JNIr. 
Anderson  and  worshipped  in  the  town  hall.  In  1718  they 
purchased  a  lot,  and  on  the  following  year  built  a  church.* 
Beside  collections  in  the  town,  they  were  aided  by  the 
Governor,  Council  and  Representatives  of  Connecticut. 
When  the}"  asked  incorporation  from  the  Legislature  of 
New  York  as  Scots,  in  consequence  of  opposition  made  by 
the  vestry  of  Trinity  Church,  their  request  was  refused. 
Their  petition  was  in  1724  transmitted  to  the  "Lords  of 
Trade."  They  obtained  aid  also  from  Philadelphia  and 
Scotland,  and  in  1730  their  house  was  finished.  Two  lead- 
ing men  opposed  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Anderson  as  pastor, 
and  the  trustees  of  New  Haven  College  sent  missionaries  at 
their  request  to  erect  a  new  congregation.  This  Congrega- 
tionalist  efi"ort  to  produce  division  did  not  eventually  suc- 
ceed, and  the  missionary  left  them  in  1726.  Pemberton 
and  dimming  served  them  several  3"ears.  "  In  1753  Pem- 
berton was  blamed  by  some  of  the  people  (Scotsmen)  for 
neglecting  family  visiting,  Cumming  and  the  session  for 
introducing  Watts  of  their  own  accord,  and  both  ministers 
for  neglecting  to  recommend  the  catechism  at  baptism  and 
for  praying  when  asked  at  funerals."     ( IF.) 

Both  were  soon  after  dismissed  at  their  own  request. 
Failing,  on  July  18th,  1754,  to  obtain  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bel- 
lamy from  Connecticut,  he,  in  1755,  recommended  to  them 
^'the  Rev.  David  McGregor,  of  Nutfield,  N.  H.,  as  likely  to 
suit  their  religious  people  and  the  Scotch."  They  sent  to 
him  an  "  invitation,"  and  even  the  Governor  himself  came 


*  Presbyterians  formed  a  congregation  speaking  English  in  New  York 
in  1716,  and  in  1716  the  French  Presbyterians  obtained  permission  to 
erect  their  first  meeting-house  in  Boston. 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  135 

to  New  England  to  persuade  him  to  go  to  New  York,  but 
his  Presb\^ter\%  when  met  at  Boston  on  May  14th,  1755, 
declared  that  they  had  no  authority  to  remove  a  minister 
out  of  their  bounds,  and  he  saw  no  encouragement  to 
adventure  himself  among  a  people  so  "  divided  among 
themselves."     (IF.) 

But  about  what  should  a  congregation  aided  by  gov- 
ernors, colleges,  councillors,  representatives,  by  the  town 
of  New  York,  the  town  of  Philadelphia,  and  by  North 
Britain  be  divided?  They  had  now,  for  above  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  a  large  finished  house  of  worship,  and  full 
effort  was  made  to  have  it  j^roperly  perpetuated  to  its  ap- 
propriate use.  The  secret  was,  divers  doctrines,  usages  and 
worship  had  been  introduced,  and  strife  ensued.  As  we 
have  already  seen  in  the  cases  of  Hillhouse  and  others,  to 
harmonize  the  two  species,  Presbyterianism  and  Congrega- 
tionalism, is  simply  impossible,  and  the  latter  had  now 
increasingly  permeated  this  church.  As  far  back  as  "  1724, 
out  of  seventeen  ministers  in  a  delegated  Synod,  six  were 
from  New  England."  (TF.)  Early  associations  and  cus- 
toms have  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  mind,  and  these 
men  could  not  easily  totally  divest  themselves  of  their 
Congregational  training.  Hence,  when  a  committee  was 
appointed  by  Synod  in  1752,  "the  general  ])la)i  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  as  practised  by  the  Synod  of  New 
York  "was  viewed  as  the  true  standard  of  Presbyterian- 
ism, and  they  conclude  "  that  as  to  the  methods  taken  to 
introduce  a  new  version  of  the  psalms  in  the  public  wor- 
ship, the  Synod  judge  it  to  be  disorderly,  and  always  to  be 
discountenanced  when  the  parties  in  matters  of  debate  in  a 
church  do  car:|^y  about  private  subscriptions."  (Digest.') 
Said  committee  reported  in  1753  that  "  it  is  not  expedient 
at  present,  judicially,  to  recommend  a  change  in  the  ver- 
sion of  the  psalms,  lest  the  animosities  in  the  congregation 
should  be  more  inflamed."  (Digest.)  McGregor  did  not 
see  his  way  clear  to  leave  a  devoted  and  confiding  pastoral 
charge  in  order  to  dwell  in  a  tent  of  Kedar  among  "  ani- 
mosities." 

Owing  to  this  commingling  of  English,  Welsh  and  New 
England,  as  well  as  Scotch  and  Irish  teachings,  the  de- 
nomination had  in  1728,  according  to  the  Rev.  John 
Thompson  in  his  overture,  "  not  any  particular  system  of 


136  HISTORY  OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

doctrines  composed  by  ourselves  or  others  which  we  by 
any  judicial  act  of  our  church  have  adopted  to  be  the  arti- 
cles or  confession  of  our  faith,  etc.  The  most  that  can  be 
said  is,  that  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  is  the 
confession  of  the  faith  of  the  generality  of  our  members, 
ministers  and  people." 

Notwithstanding  that  they  had,  in  1736,  avowed  their 
adoption  of  "  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Directory 
without  the  least  variation  or  alteration  "  excepting  the 
clauses  anent  magistrates  circa  sacra,  they  shewed  them- 
selves to  be  gradually  falling  into  Congregational  usages, 
as  we  have  seen,  until  at  least  a  few  of  the  peculiarities  of 
Scotch  (or  proper )  Presbyterians  were  abandoned  in  New 
York,  and  a  "  session  introduced  Dr.  Watts'  imitations  of 
the  Psalms  of  David,  the  constant  use  of  which  much  dis- 
satisfied a  number  of  congregations."     But  this  was  not  all. 

According  to  the  historians,  Hetherington  and  McCrie, 
^'  the  secular  affairs  (in  Scotland  were  and)  should  be  un- 
der the  management  of  deacons."  The  deacon  "had  the 
special  oversight  of  the  revenues  of  the  church  and  of  the 
poor."  "  The  second  Book  of  Discipline  recognized  three 
officers  for  three  things,  ministers,  elders  and  deacons  for 
three  things,  doctrine,  discipline  and  distribution,  the  dea- 
conship  to  have  the  care  of  ecclesiastical  goods."  "  The 
collections  made  by  the  first  deacons  of  apostolical  ap- 
pointment were  not  only  of  that  v/hich  was  collected  in 
manner  of  alms,  as  some  suppose,  but  of  other  goods, 
moveable  and  immoveable,  of  lands  and  possessions." 
The  Presbyterians  of  the  Synods  of  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  had  adopted  Stuart  of  Pardovan's  collections  for 
their  government,  which  directs  "  that  the  money  received 
by  contributions  be  faithfully  delivered  up  to  the  session, 
according  to  whose  judgment  and  appointment  the  deacons 
are  to  distribute  the  church  goods.^^ 

These  Presbyterians  now  resorted  to  policy,  to  a  Board 
of  Trustees,  or  a  committee  to  gain  the  strength  necessary 
to  support  the  gospel,  and  after  fighting  it  over  for  two 
years  the  old  Scotch  party  compelled  this  solitary  board 
of  intruding  trustees  to  agree  that  they  should  be  no  longer 
elected  in  their  present  form :  the  Synod  "  approved  said 
agreement,  and  judge  that  if  the  congregation  think  it  ex- 
pedient to  form  a  committee  for  the  management  of  their 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  137 

temporal  concerns,  the  said  committee  shall  be  chosen, 

after  that  time,  by  the  ministers,  elders  and  deacons,  with 
consent  of  the  congregation,  and  be  accountable  to  tliem 
for  their  conduct." 

The  development  and  influence  of  this  fibre  of  Congre- 
gationahsm  will  appear  a  century  hence. 

From  these  innovations  tlie  proper  Presbyterians  of  New 
York  were  delivered,  by  returning  to  the  simplicity  of 
their  scriptural  worship  and  government  under  a  minis- 
try from  Scotland  and  Ireland.  On  December  8th,  1755, 
Nathaniel-  Hazzard,  of  New  York,  wrote  to  Dr.  Bellamy 
that  "  Gellatly  has  sense,  learning  and  piety,"  and  on  No- 
vember 17th,  1758,  "the  Scots  people  have  got  up  a  new 
meeting-house,  Mr.  Gellatly  has  been  preaching  in  it  for 
four  weeks."  (W.)  Thus,  while  the  Presbyterians  of  the 
country  had  drifted  from  their  moorings,  there  were  found 
those  who  continued  to  walk  in  "  the  old  paths  and  good 
way,"  and  who  ought  to  have  been  subsequently  regarded 
as  the  true  or  proper  representatives  there  of  this  scriptu- 
ral regimen. 

It  is  well  at  such  times  to  hear  disinterested  observers, 
and  William  Douglass,  M.  D.,  an  Episcopalian,  in  his 
summary  (vol.  2,  p.  147,  London,  1760),  having  investi- 
gated the  case,  tells  us :  "  The  dissenting  congregation  in 
New  York,  though  under  a  Congregational  minister  from 
Boston,  is  called  Presbyterian.  The  Scots  Presbyterians 
there  are  modelled  according  to  the  Westminster  Stand- 
ards appointed  by  the  Kirk  in  1647.  These  are  properly 
called  Calvinists  and  follow  the  Heidelberg,  Geneva,  Hol- 
land and  the  Huguenots.  They  use  an  established  form 
of  psalmody." 

As  the  Erskines  left  not  the  Church  of  Scotland,  but 
her  corruptions,  so  these  men  in  withdrawing  from  the 
"  animosities,"  engendered  by  unscriptural  customs,  ought 
to  be  honored  for  their  attachment  to  gospel  principles. 
They  were  the  continuation  of  true  Presbyterianism  in  the 
central  and  southern  colonies.  In  consequence  of  their 
earnest  and  repeated  applications  to  the  ecclesiastical  body 
to  which  he  belonged,  the  Rev.  John  Mason  came  from 
Scotland  to  New  York  in  1761.  As  the  Erskines  were 
nick-named  Seceders  in  Scotland,  so  a  certain  kind  of  char- 
ity, but  not  that  which  is  "  the  very  bond  of  perfectness," 


138  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTEllIANIS.M 

attempted  to  fasten  this  epithet  upon  them.  Hence,  sn^-s 
the  biographer,  in  his  "  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Rogers,"  they  liad 
seceded  from  the  first  Presbyterian  church  because,  "  in- 
curably dissatisfied  with  the  system  of  psalmody,  which 
the  majority "  (not  the  denomination,  nor  any  church 
court,  but  one  session,)  "  had  chosen  to  adopt."  By  "  re- 
ceiving, observing,  keeping  pure  and  entire  "  the  religious 
worship  and  ordinances  which  God  has  appointed  in  his 
word,  "they,  the  '  seceders,'  grew  and  prospered."  With 
the  exception  of  the  congregation  of  Newburj^port,  which 
was  forced  out  of  Congregationalism  by  civil  embarrass- 
ments, and  which  was  admitted  with  its  Congregational 
"  Bay  State  Version  "  of  the  psalms  by  the  Boston  Presby- 
tery, all  the  Presbyterians  in  New  England  had  previous!}^ 
and  during  tliis  quarter  of  a  centur}^,  continued  to  use  the 
version  ap[)ointed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Churcli 
of  Scotland  in  1G50,  to  be  sung  in  congregations  and  fami- 
lies. So  far  from  seceding  from  the  first  Presbyterian 
church  in  New  York,  the  proper  Presbyterians  were  over- 
borne by  those  of  New  England  origin,  who  had  artfully 
imported  and  introduced  the  139  psalms  as  "imitated" 
and  Christianized  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Watts,  by  "  carrying 
about  private  subscriptions  in  a  disorderly  manner," 
(Digest.)  Instead  of  being  justly  charged  with  seceding 
from  the  first  church,  they  simply,  as  Presb3^terians,  be- 
lieved that  lawfully  constituted  church  courts  were  the 
proper  authorities  to  determine  and  change  the  worship 
of  God  as  to  matter  and  manner  in  "  the  churches,"  and 
not  the  simple  "  majority  "  of  one  congregation  operating 
on,  through  or  by  a  session.  For  this  attachment  to  prin- 
ciple and  to  their  church  government,  they  are  sneered  at 
as  "  incurably  dissatisfied." 

Had  this  "  incurable  dissatisfaction "  taken  and  held 
possession  of  "  the  first  church  "  of  New  York,  and  of 
those  w^ho  have  followed  the  example  and  practice  of  that 
"  majority,"  Presbyterianism  to-day  in  this  land,  instead 
of  being  divided  into  its  diff"erent  "  schools  "  and  sectarian 
bodies,  "would  have  stood  forth  with  a  majesty  unequalled 
and  a  moral  power  unapproachable  by,  either  separately  or 
combined,  the  divisions  of  Prelacy  or  the  ramifications  of 
Congregationalism.  It  would  also  have  so  permeated  New 
England  as  to  aid,  if  not  enable,  Puritanism  to  throw  off 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  139 

the  blight  of  Socinianism — possibly  to  have  prevented  its 
existence. 

As  the  "  little  cloud,  like  a  man's  hand,"  brought  abund- 
ance of  rain,  so  "  the  beginning  of  strife,"  and  not  the 
"  leaving  off  of  contention  "  by  that  "  majority  "  (on  Con- 
gregational principles)  in  a  single  congregation,  has 
poured  floods  of  error  and  division  among  those  who  were 
(and  ought  to  have  continued  to  be)  brethren ;  and  after 
the  experience  and  sectarian  rancor  of  above  a  century — 

"Time  but  the  impression  deeper  makes, 
As  streams  their  channels  deeper  wear." 


140  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 


CHAPTER  V. 

1768-1793 — Development — The  era  of  growth — Prior  possession — Diffi- 
culties— John  Murray — "  AVoolers" — A  dilemma — Ordained  in  Phil- 
adelphia— Boothbay — Dismissed  himself — He  developed  Presbyte- 
rianism  in  Maine — Watched — The  first  minute  respecting  him — Pres- 
bytery of  Boston,  twelve  pastors — Yet  they  could  not  extinguish  him 
— Presbytery  at  Eastward — Its  constitution — A  Fast-Day — P'unda- 
mentals  in  five  articles — Each  certifies  his  former  standing — A 
question — "The  town  clerk  read  the  contracts" — "Judged" — Anil- 
lustration  of  the  ductility  of  Presbyterianism — Samuel  Wlieeler — 
Newmarket — Boscawen — "Brute  Beasts" — Ready  to  join  with  other 
Presbyteries — Send  a  mission  to  Salem  Presbytery — "  Various  ani- 
mosities"— Murray  at  32 — Loss  of  minutes  for  fifteen  years — The 
Roll  in  1770 — Division  into  a  Synod  j)roposed — Rev.  Geo.  Gilmore — ■ 
John  Eliot — Mr.  Noble— Petitions — John  Morrison — His  case  fearful 
— Joel  ii.  17— Parsons  and  Moorehead  in  strife — A  citation — Mr. 
Patrick  —  Blandford — Nottingham  —  Hampton  Falls — Gilmore  or- 
dained in  1773 — McLean  installed  at  Bristol — Moorehead  to  apologize 
— An  expedient  disapproved — ]\Ioorehead's  death — Dr.  Whittaker 
and  Salem  congregation  admitted — Rev.  N.  Merrill — Psalmody — The 
"  felt  want " — Rottenness — Valve  defective — Supply — Com.  to  Boston 
reported — Voted — Presbytery  at  l]astward — Animosities — Strict  dis- 
cipline— Murray  rejected — Declinature  by  Long  Lane — They  called 
Murray,  he  promised  if — A  remonstrance — "  Quum  primum'^ — A  mu- 
tual compact — Translation  of  M,  opposed — Valuable  congregation — 
Ten  years*  ownership — Moonlight  of  Christianity — Tilt — Calls — July 
4th — 1776  Presbytery  met — Debate — Parsons'  death — Sermon  on  Orig- 
inal Sin — Reason  No.  5 — No.  8 — Murray  "  transported  " — A  day  of 
desolation. 

Development  stands  prominently  forward  among  the 
beauties  of  nature  from  inception  to  maturity.  This  is 
applicable  not  only  to  the  animal  and  vegetable  king- 
doms, but  also  to  benevolent  associations  of  men,  and  es- 
pecially to  the  visible  church  in  all  ages — in  all  her  de- 
partments— as  "  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth." 

We  have  sketched  the  introduction  of  Presbyterianism 
into  New  England,  and  we  enter  upon  the  era  of  its 
growth.    In  doing  thisj  we  must  remember  that  the  field 


IN   NEW    ENGLAND.  141 

was  not  only  limited,  but  ungenial,  under  the  Procrustean 
domination  of  another  species  of  ecclesiasticism  sustained 
by  its  own  civil  power. 

Hence  "  the  oppressed  Irish  brethren  and  Presbyterian 
strangers  "  had  to  "  contend  earnestly  for  "  their  "  faith  " 
from  their  first  coming  to  New  England. 

The  exceptions  to  this  w^ere  found  only  where,  as 
pioneers,  they  in  colonies  obtained  prior  possession  of  the 
soil,  and  removed  tlie  forest,  as  was  the  case  in  London- 
derry, N.  H.  From  1743  till  1768,  by  native  increase  and 
immigration  from  this  one,  other  congregations  were 
formed  in  new  towns,  and  during  this  quarter  of  a  century, 
under  the  original  ''  Irish "  and  Bo.^ton  Presbyteries, 
some  of  them  were  pros]:)ering  and  others  declining^  or, 
like  the  French  Churchy  were  dead..  In  the  meantime,  in 
entering  on  this  period,  we  labor  under  difficulties  in  not 
knowing  in  many  cases  what  was  done  by  the  church 
courts,  and  how  they  took  care  of  the  flock  as  overseers ; 
for  the  minutes  of  the  first  Presbytery  have  perished,  and 
the  records  of  the  other,  if  kept  at  the  time  from  175o  till 
1770,  are  lost.  From  fragmentary  sources,  however,  we 
learn  not  a  little  of  what  was  done  by  way  of  church  ex- 
tension. 

Before  I  revert  to  church  courts,  to  congregations  and 
families,  I  begin  with  one  man  who  fills  a  large  space  in 
the  history  of  Presbyterianism  in  New  England.  John 
Murray  was  born  six  miles  from  Ballymena,  on  May  22d, 
1742;  united  with  the  church  at  fifteen;  was  educated  at 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  where  he  took  his  degree  of 
M.  A. ;  received  a  license  (as  he  claimed)  from  the  class  in 
Wooler,  England,  signed  by  Isaac  Wood,  Moderator, 
Robert  Trotter,  clerk,  and  nineteen  other  ministers,  and 
began  to  preach  at  eighteen  years  of  age.  He  was  soon 
after  charged  with  forging  his  certificate  of  licensure,  and 
other  acts  were  alleged  against  him  in  connection  with  the 
matter  before  he  was  tw^enty-three. 

When  the  Presbytery  of  Ballymena  questioned  his  li- 
cense, he  sent  it  to  some  in  Edinburgh  to  have  it  attested 
by  such  as  knew  the  hands  that  signed  iU  Instead  of 
taking  better  steps,  they  wrote  on  the  back  of  the  same 
sheet  a  certificate  attesting  that  "  he  had  indeed  gone  to 
Northumberland ;  had  certainly  been  licensed  there ;  had 


142  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

preached  several  times  in  Scotland  in  consequence  thereof, 
and  was  well  approved  by  them  ; ''  and  then  sent  it  to  him 
signed  by  themselves,  with  the  words  moderator  and 
clerk  of  Presbytery  annexed  to  their  names,  which  they 
were  not.  This  certificate  caused  him  trouble  during  his 
whole  life;  for  being  shown  in  the  Synod  of  Ulster  at 
Londonderry  (although  by  another  in  his  absence  he  al- 
ways said),  it  immediately  became  an  object  of  attention. 
He  was  now  accused  of  forgery. 

Meanwhile  his  Scottish  friends  had  written  to  him,  own- 
ing the  fraud,  but  beseeching  him  not  to  ruin  them,  as 
their  prospects  in  the  church  were  good.  Rather  than 
ruin  them  and  give  his  own  enemies  a  triumph,  which  at 
that  age  he  was  too  proud  to  endure,  he  defended  the 
paper  as  genuine.  (Ver.)  "When  hardly  twenty-one  he 
came  from  Ireland  to  New  York,  and  was  in  May,  1765, 
ordained  and  settled  for  several  months  as  successor  to  the 
Rev.  Gilbert  Tennent,  in  Philadelphia.  The  charge  fol- 
lowed him,  and  while  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia 
acted  in  the  matter  with  wisdom  and  prudence,  the  first 
wrong  step  had  plunged  him  in  the  mire,  and  each  suc- 
ceedinsj  one  sunk  him  deeper.  He  wrote,  "  the  frown  of  a 
holy  God  was  on  the  thing,  and  every  measure  of  defence, 
either  promised  or  actually  taken  by  the  authors  of  the2')aper, 
only  increased  the  embarrassment  of  him  whom  they 
meant  to  defend."  His  whole  character  now  became  sus- 
picious. Other  things  were  alleged,  but  never  judicially 
investigated,  although  influencing  the  result.  {Vermilyea.) 
He  obtained  certificates  from  the  Presbytery,  from  the 
elders  and  from  115  heads  of  families  in  his  congregation 
in  Philadelphia,  and  removed  to  Boothbay ;  while  some 
months  after,  not  appearing  to  defend  himself,  the  case 
appeared  conclusive,  and  Presbytery  excommunicated  him 
on  April  7th,  1767. 

His  retrospective  view  of  the  case  will  (D.  V.)  be  after- 
wards presented. 

Such  is  the  written  account  of  him,  and  without  casting 
away  current  historic  statements,  I  here  present  the  fol- 
lowing. The  reader  can  judge  the  discrepancy,  if  any,  in 
facts.  We  cannot  at  sight  appreciate  the  spiritual  condi- 
tion of  the  colonists  who  formed  the  Temple  and  Dunbar 
emigrations  and  their  descendants,  for  many  years  after 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  143 

landing  in  Maine.  Removed  from  the  extensive  enjoy- 
ment of  tlie  means  of  grace,  to  have  in  the  wilderness  only 
"  silent  Sabbaths,"  their  previous  knowledge,  love  and  fear 
of  God  could  not  increase,  and  many  became  (it  is  be- 
lieved) extensively  inditferent.  They  did  not  totally 
neglect  "the  assembling  of  themselves  together"  on  Sab- 
baths, to  sing  psalms,  to  pray,  read  the  Divine  word  and 
portions  of  sermons,  or  other  religious  works,  which  they 
had  brought  with  them.  Yet,  after  years  of  deprivation, 
even  when  visited  occasionally  by  transient  preachers, 
their  case  became  deplorable — "  No  man  cared  for  their 
souls."  Even  tlie  Boston  Presbytery,  when  applied  to, 
neglected  them.  (*Sew'.,  p.  272.) 

Boothbay  was  incorporated  December  22d,  1763,  and 
the  inhabitants  were  cheered  by  the  coming  of  Mr.  John 
Murray  in  the  same  year.  (An  uncle  by  marriage)  Mr. 
Andrew  Reed,  by  urgent  solicitations,  drew  him  to  visit 
them.  Reed,  when  a  younger  man,  spent  at  least  one 
winter  for  wrecks  at  a  distant  lonely  spot,  cutting  wood  and 
living  in  a  camp.  On  his  return,  as  he  was  constantly  ex- 
posed to  the  Indians,  to  wolves,  as  well  as  to  the  often  in- 
tense cold,  he  was  asked  if  he  were  not  afraid  ?  His  an- 
swer was  energetic  and  to  the  point :  "  Had  not  I  my  Bible 
with  me,  and  was  not  that  enough?" 

Besides  his  influence,  Robert,  the  father  of  John  Mur- 
ray, had  come  to  reside  in  Townsend.  Hence,  says  Sew- 
all  (p.  346),  "Ninety  pounds  sterling  per  annum  as  a 
salary  was  subscribed  at  once."  They  were  to  give  to  him 
two  hundred  acres  of  land  and  build  for  him  an  house. 
As  the  church  record  has  it,  "  The  Lord  spirited  up  the 
inhabitants  so  that  it  was  quickly  filled  up."  Still,  ho 
left  them  in  February,  1764,  and  on  the  17th  of  May  the 
Presbytery  of  New  York  reported  to  the  Synod  "that  they 
have  received  Mr.  John  Murray,  a  candidate  from  Ireland, 
under  their  care."  On  a  request  "  made  from  the  First 
Philadelphia  Presbytery,  also  from  Mr.  Gilbert  Tennent 
and  his  congregation,  praying  supplies,"  Mr.  Murray  was 
appointed  there  four  Sabbaths,  in  July,  1764.  There,  as 
his  successor,  he  was  ordained,  and  his  labors  were  emi- 
nently blessed  in  building  up  that  church.  The  dew  of 
his  youth  was  now  upon  him,  and  not  a  few  rejoiced  in 
his  ministry,  until  his  "  sin  found  him  out."  Consequently, 


144  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

on  May  22d,  1766,  the  first  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  re- 
ported, "  that  they  have  ordained  Mr.  John  Murray  since 
our  last  Synod  ;  but  that  some  charges  since  that  were  laid 
in  against  him  respecting  his  moral  character,  which  are 
not  yet  decided  by  the  Presl^ytery."  His  case  was  then 
deferred,  and  on  IVfay  21st,  1767,  said  Presbytery  report, 
*'  that  the}^  have  deposed  Mr.  Murray  since  our  last." 

Perhaps  the  })eople  in  Boothljay  did  not  know  all  the 
above  particulars,  but,  if  they  did,  their  commissioners  to 
the  Presbytery  at  Philadelphia  reported  diflerently.  To 
him,  Andrew  Peed  wrote,  "  V\'e  are  firmly  resolved  to  in- 
sist upon  your  promise,  to  the  uttermost,  as  we  believe 
they  have  got  you  settled  there  by  fraud  and  treachery, 
by  stopping  both  your  letters  and  ours  "  (p.  347).  The 
Presbytery  of  Piiiladeli)hia  did  not  heed  their  appeal,  and 
their  commissioners  went  before  the  Synod  of  New  York 
and  Philadelphia.  ''The  petition  of  the  town  set  forth 
such  a  statement  of  facts  and  documentary  evidence,  that 
they  did  not  doubt  their  success,  if  once  they  came  before 
so  conscientious  a  court  as  the  Synod."  {Ih.)  "Andrew 
Reed  was  at  the  head  of  the  commission  in  prosecuting 
their  cause.  The  papers  were  all  returned  with  the  min- 
utes of  Presbytery  whereby  Mr.  Murray  was  liberated,  in 
manner  and  form  as  full  as  desired."  {lb.  348.) 

"  In  three  months  he  returned.  The  town  officers  and 
people  gathered  under  the  new  frame  of  their  meeting- 
house, the  meeting  was  opened  with  prayer,  and  Mr.  ^lur- 
ray  stated  fully  all  their  transactions  with  him."  AVliether 
true  or  false,  their  town  and  session  records,  and  his  own 
private  diary,  give  extensive  details  of  their  past,  then 
present  and  subsequent  procedure. 

In  the  meantime  such  a  mind  could  not  be  hermetically 
sealed,  e.ven  in  the  primeval  forests  of  Maine,  On  coming 
to  New  England,  as  he  thought  he  had,  as  an  ordained 
minister,  dismissed  himself  from  the  Pliiladelphians,  and 
finding  a  number  of  his  own  countrymen  in  or  near^  the 
place  of  his  adoption,  he  gathered  a  congregation,  ordained 
elders,  eventually  associated  with  himself  other  clergymen, 
previously  Congregationalists,  and  formed  the  Presbytery 
at  "  the  Eastward.''^  He  regarded  his  deposition  as  an  at- 
tempted assumption  of  authority,  which  he  disclaimed. 
As  the  Synods  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  then  alone 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  145 

existed,  and  as  neither  of  the  two  Presbyteries  of  New 
England  had  any  connection  with,  and  no  subordination 
to  them  and  as  he  did  not  trouble  either  of  them,  so  he 
(without  let)  spread  himself  out  in  his  work  of  the  min- 
istry. While  he  was  not  hindered,  he  was,  however, 
closely  watched. 

On  May  12th,  1768,  a  communication,  "  signed  by  eleven 
'  associated  pastors  '  in  Boston,  with  Mr.  John  Moorehead 
at  their  foot,  was  published  in  the  Massachusetts  Gazette, 
and  in  answer  he  says,  in  an  '  appeal,'  dated  Boothbay, 
June  22d,  1768:  'If  I  speak,  I  am  suspended;  if  I  preach, 
I  am  gazetted;  if  silent,  deposed.'" 

While  their  regular  records,  covering  the  date,  appear  to 
be  lost,  the  following  statement  from  a  fragmentary  paper 
has  been  preserved,  and  it  speaks  plainly : 

''  The  first  minute  respecting  the  Rev.  Mr.  Murray  at 
Londonderry,  1769,  when  Rev.  Mr.  iMoorehead  was  present. 

"  This  Presbytery,  finding  that  the  settlement  of  Mr. 
John  Murray,  at  Boothbay  (Eastward),  is  irregular ;  that 
he  (though  professing  himself  a  Presbyterian  minister) 
has  not  offered  to  join  himself  to  any  Presbytery  of  New 
England  that  we  know  of.  That  he  stands  -charged  with 
gross  immoralities,  for  which  he  is  now  actually  under  a 
sentence  of  deposition  by  the  General  Synod  of  Ulster,  in 
Ireland.  That  some  parts  of  his  conduct  in  America  (to 
say  the  least)  are  exceeding  dark  and  doubtful.  That  he 
is  living  under  a  censure,  and  has  been  rejected  by  the 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  by  which  he  was  ordained. 

"  In  consideration  of  these  things,  this  Presbytery  is 
unanimously  of  opinion,  that  it  is  proper  to  caution  their 
members  from  having  any  communion  with  the  said  Mr. 
John  Murray,  as  they  would  not  practically  renounce 
communion  with  the  whole  body  of  Presbyterians  in  the 
Synods  of  Ulster,  New  York  and  Philadelphia;  and  as  they 
would  not  expose  themselves  to  the  discipline  of  this 
Presb3^tery. 

"That  a  copy  of  this  minute  be  transmitted  to  each  of 
the  congregations  belonging  to  this  Presbytery. 
"Attest,  J.  Strickland, 

"Presbytery  Clerk." 

The  Presbytery  of  Boston  then  consisted  of  twelve  set- 
10 


146  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

tied  pastors/with  their  elders,  and  this  "minute  "manifests 
an  average  "  taking  heed  to  themselves  and  to  the  flock 
over  the  which  the  Holy  Ghost  had  made  them  bishops." 

In  view  of  the  power  and  activity  of  the  man,  it  was  all 
necessary,  yet  it  did  not  extinguish  him ;  for  within  two 
years  we  have  regular  records  commenced,  from  which 
these  extracts  are  taken  : 

"  Minutes  of  the  first  Presbytery  at  Eastward,  erected 
June  27th,  1771,  at  the  meeting-house  in  Boothbay  (now 
Maine)."  After  pleading  tlieir  destitution,  in  their  con- 
stitution it  is  stated  :  "  It  having  pleased  xVlmighty  God  in 
his  adorable  providence  by  a  series  of  wonderful  steps  to 
bring  and  fix  one  minister  of  Presbyterian  principles,  and 
to  convince  and  bring  over  thereto  two  others  of  the  Con- 
gregational way,  it  seemed  to  be  a  special  and  very  partic- 
ular call  to  them  to  associate  themselves  into  a  Presby- 
tery at  this  time,  and  they  judged  that  they  could  not  be 
safely  accountable  for  the  neglect  or  delay  of  that  im- 
portant step." 

"  For  all  these  reasons,  the  said  three  ministers,  after  the 
most  mature  consideration  and  diligent  weighing  of  this 
affair,  did  revive  to  constitute  themselves  into  a  Presbytery 
by  the  name  of  the  Fird  Presbytery  at  the  Eastward,  and 
having  for  that  purpose  conversed  with  their  own,  and  in- 
vited the  other  regular  Presbyterian  churches  here  that 
are  destitute  of  pastors  to  accede  to  it  by  sending  each 
their  elder  to  take  a  seat  with  them,  and  finding  that  this 
step  is  much  desired  by  the  generality  of  God's  people  in 
these  parts,  and  that  several  vacant  churches  have  sent 
their  elders  here  for  that  purpose.  Therefore  the  said 
ministers,  together  with  the  ruling  elders  assembled,  did 
resolve  that  this  day  be  set  apart  as  a  day  of  fasting  and 
prayer,  and  that  the  intended  Presbytery  be  constituted 
after  the  public  worship  is  concluded,  and  that  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Murray  is  chosen  to  lead  in  that  business.  But  that 
this  Presbytery  may  stand  distinguished  from  all  sectaries 
of  every  class,  Ave  think  it  our  duty  to  declare  expressly 
the  principles  on  which  as  fundamentals  the  same  is  now 
constituted,  which  are  as  follows : 

"  I.  We  hold  the  Scriptures  as  alone  of  absolute  authority 
in  all  matters  of  faith  and  duty. 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  147 

"  II.  The  doctrines  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith,  catechisms,  larger  and  shorter,  we  beheve  to  be 
founded  on  the  Word  of  God,  and  as  such  take  them  to  be 
the  confession  of  our  faith. 

"  III.  We  adopt  the  Directory,  etc.,  for  substance,  re- 
ceive the  form  of  process,  first  and  second  Books  of  Disci- 
pline, with  the  Acts  of  Assembly  that  are  collected  by 
Stewart  and  Dundas  for  the  substance  thereof 

"  IV.  We  promise  due  submission  to  the  authority  of 
this  Presbytery  in  the  Lord. 

"  V.  We  will  lay  ourselves  out  for  the  peace  and   up- 
building of  the  visible  church  in  this  region. 
.   "  VI.  We  will  never  withdraw  from  this  Presbytery  but 
by  its  rules,  etc. 

"  VII.  We  will  receive  ministers  and  churches  on  this 
plan,  etc. 

"  VIII.  This  Presbytery  shall  be  joined  to  a  Synod  as 
soon  as  one  can  be  formed  within  our  reach. 

"  IX.  We  confess  our  sins,  etc. 

"  X.  We  will  do  all  in  our  power  to  counsel  and  assist 
our  brethren,  etc. 

"  Upon  all  which  articles,  we,  the  subscribers,  do,  in  the 
name  of  God,  constitute  ourselves  into  a  Presbytery  by 
solemn  prayer,  etc.,  and  in  consequence  thereof,  declare 
ourselves  possessed  of  all  powers  and  rights,  etc.,  lawfully 
claimed  by  any  Presbytery  in  the  Christian  Church,  and 
therefore  we  take  instruments. 

"  Joseph  Prince,  Moderator. 

•"  John  Miller,  Presbytery  clerk. 

"  John  Murray. 

"  John  Beath,  ruling  elder  from  the  church  at  Boothbay. 

"  David  Dunning,  elder  from  the  church  at  Brunswick. 

"  Wm.  Ines,  ruling  elder  from  Bristol. 

"  John  Merrill,  ruling  elder  from  Topsham. 

"  To  prevent  slanderous  reports  before  they  enter  on  any 
other  judicial  acts,  each  minister  certifies  his  former 
standing." 

Joseph  Prince  was  ordained  by  a  council  in  1757.  After 
laboring  fourteen  years  he  was  dismissed  by  a  council 
and  recommended  by  them,  apjn'oved  by  the  church,  and 
is  now  in  contract  witli  the  N(<rth  Parish  in  Pownalboro, 
etc.    His  standing  was  approved. 


f 

148  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

John  Miller,  ordained  at  Brunswick  in  1762  b}^  a  council, 
and  is  now  the  settled  pastor  there.  He  is  now  convinced 
of  the  defects  of  that  constitution,  and  cannot  longer  be- 
long to  that  sect,  and  is  fully  convinced  of  the  scriptural 
character  of  the  Presbj'terian  plan,  and  is  himself  a  Pres- 
byterian from  principle,  and  his  people  mostly  desire  to 
be  under  this  government,  and  have  sent  an  elder  for  this 
purpose,  etc.     They  then  enrolled  him  and  his  church. 

Question.  Can  Congregational  ordination  bear  these 
brethren  out  in  a  judicial  capacity,  as  Presbyterians,  act- 
ing in  the  affairs  of  other  churches? 

Answer.  A  distinction  is  to  be  regarded  between  the 
essence  and  the  circumstance.  All  that  is  essential  to  or- 
dination is  a  lawful  call — imposition  of  hands  of  ordained 
Presbyters  with  fasting  and  prayer  in  circumstances  quod 
fieri  non  debuit  factum  valet. 

The  ordaining  to  particular  churches  is  very  erroneous, 
as  we  judge  ordination  makes  a  man  a  minister  through 
the  whole  visible  church. 

The  Rev.  John  Murray  presented  his  declaration,  main- 
taining that  in  1765  he  was  ordained  a  minister  by  the 
lirst  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  and  installed  pastor  of 
the  second  church  there — that  he  was  dismissed  on  two 
testimonials  (intending  to  go  to  Europe  on  account  of  his 
liealth )  as  a  minister  in  good  standing,  which  testimonials 
he  produced  to  this  Presbytery — that  some  time  after  said 
Presbytery  suspended  and  then  deposed  him.  Being  con- 
scious of  the  illegality  of  these  their  acts,  he  took  no  no- 
tice of  them — that  he  came  here  and  was  installed  here^on 
the  first  Thursday  of  August,  1766. 

No  Presbyterian  minister  being  near  enough,  he  led  in 
that  work  himself.  The  town  clerk  read  the  contracts  be- 
tween liimself  and  this  people,  the  history  of  which,  at- 
tested by  the  session,  he  read  from  the  session  book.  He 
has,  consequently,  exercised  the  pastoral  office  in  all  its 
parts.  He  is  really  sorry  for  the  said  controversy  witli  the 
said  Presbyter}^,  and  desires  admission  here,  his  church 
sending  their  elder  for  this  end.  Judged. — That,  as  the 
action  of  that  Presbytery  in  Philadelphia  was  after  his 
regular  dismission,  and  therefore  irregular,  he  be  now  re- 
ceived, and  they  now  repone  him.  Resolved — to  cultivate 
friendship  with  other  Presbyteries  by  correspondence,  and 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  149 

SO  to  write  to  the  first  Presbytery  of  Londonderry^  N.  H,, 
and  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Murray  be  our  delegate  to  meet  with 
the  same  Presbyter}^  about  the  erection  of  a  Synod.  Meet- 
ings to  be  held  third  Tuesdays  of  May  and  September. 

We  have  here  an  illustration  of  the  ductility  of  Presby- 
terianism,  almost  equal  to  prelatic  apostolical  succession 
itself,  and  which  during  the  lifetime  of  Mr.  Murray  mani- 
fested vitality.  Their  meetings,  according  to  adjournment, 
were  held  from  year  to  year  until  June  13,  1792,  and  their 
records  manifest  at  least  an  average  amount  of  official 
faithfulness.  For  example:  On  May  19, 1772,  they  assigned 
trials  for  license  to  Mr.  Samuel  Wheeler,  a  graduate  of 
Cambridge,  whom  they  had  taken  under  their  care.  Tliey 
met  a  second  time  on  his  trials  on  September  7,  1772,  and 
again  on  October  6, 1772;  and  at  Georgetown  on  November 
18,  1772,  they  met  a  third  time  pro  re  nata,  "examined 
him  in  the  usual  matters — and  as  to  his  piety." 

In  view  of  his  "  small  opportunities  and  very  scanty  pro- 
gress, they  are  only  constrained  by  the  urgent  necessity 
of  the  churches  to  think  of  licensing  him  at  this  meeting." 

Surely  this  is  a  hard  account  of  a  graduate  of  Harvard 
College,  but  perhaps  "his  small  opportunities"  may  refer 
to  a  neglected  religious  education,  as  well  as  to  his  literary 
disadvantages.  He  subscribed  the  formula,  and  was 
licensed  November  19,  1772.  "The  charge,  with  many 
particular  cautions,  was  given  by  the  moderator.  He  was 
appointed  to  Topsham  for  three  or  four  Sabbaths,  and 
then  to  study  in  private  till  next  meeting."  From  year 
to- year,  as  seen  by  the  records,  they  conducted  their  judi- 
cial business  "decently  and  in  order."  At  Topsham,  Octo- 
ber, 1773,  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Ewer  and  his  church  of  New 
Market,  N.  H.,  requested  admission.  To  prevent  difficulty, 
"TFie  moderator  was  ordered  to  go  to  New  Market — stnte 
the  order  of  this  Presbytery,  and  see  if  they  are  willing  in 
all  things  to  conform."  "  The  same  to  be  done  at  Bos- 
cawen,  whence  a  similar  application  is  made."  "Ministers 
to  perform  pastoral  visitation  this  fall."  Ordered— that 
"the  brute  beasts  killed  by  the  children  of  one  church 
member,  belonging  to  another  church  member,  be  paid  for 
by  the  parents."     This  was  equitable. 

After  due  examination,  as  ordered,  the  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Ewer  and  his  New  Market  congregation  were,  on  May  31, 


150  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

1774,  received,  while,  for  varied  irregularities,  Wheeler 
was  at  the  same  meeting  suspended. 

As  Presbytery  abhors  isolation  where  ''there  is  one 
faith,"  so  they  at  Pownalboro,  on  August  16,  1774,  ''Re- 
.wived  that  they  stood  ready  to  join  with  other  Presbyteries 
in  New  England  upon  Christian  terms,  and  that  on  this 
subject  they  send  a  commissioner  to  the  Presbytery  at 
8alcm,  for  which  purpose  tlie  Rev.  John  Murray  was  ap- 
pointed, and  to  carry  with  him  a  copy  of  their  constitu- 
tion." Their  congregations  were,  on  October  12,  1774, 
w'lcn  they  met  in  Brunswick,  four,  beside  some  vacancies, 
of  which  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Joseph  Prince,  John  Miller, 
John  Murray,  and  Nathaniel  Ewer  were  the  pastors. 

Their  commissioner  reported  that  he  had  waited  on  the 
Presbytery  at  Salem,  Mass.,  but  various  animosities  still 
prevailing  among  the  ministers  that  way,  render  the  synod- 
ical  union  purposed  a  very  distant  object."  The  Presby- 
tery, considering  that  they  had  done  what  they  could  in 
the  matter,  resolved  to  proceed  no  farther  in  the  matter  at 
present. 

We  thus  find  the  Rev.  Mr.  Murray  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
two  the  clerk  of  a  Presbytery  of  which  he  could  say, 
quorum  magna  pars  fui — ''of  which  I  have  been  a  great 
part,"  and  we  must  leave  him  for  a  season,  and  chronolog- 
ically notice  some  of  the  matters  now  transpiring  else- 
where connected  with  our  subject. 

While  the  minutes  of  the  Boston  Presbytery  are  not  re- 
corded from  1755  till  1770,  still,  in  different  ways,  from 
town  records  and  other  sources,  we  learn  in  part  the  pro- 
gress made  in  sustaining  and  propagating  this  scriptural 
church  order  in  their  bounds,  or  the  gospel  through  it. 

At  Pelham,  April  16th,  1755,  on  the  roll  are  the  names 
of  John  Moorehead,  David  McGregor,  .Alex.  McDowell, 
Robert  Burns,  Jonathan  Parsons,  Solomon  Prentice,  and 
Alex.  Boyd,  and  we  find  their  records  resumed  thus : 

"A  true  and  correct  copy  of  the  minutes  of  the  reverend 
Presbytery,  now  called  the  Presbytery  of  Boston,  consist- 
ing of  twelve  congregations,  whose  ministers  are  as  follows  :" 
John  Moorehead,  Boston ;  David  McGregor,  London- 
derry ;  Jonathan  Parsons,  Newburyport ;  Daniel  Mitchell, 
Pembroke;  John  Houston,  Bedford;  Moses  Baldwin, 
Kingston ;    Richard   Graham,   Pelham ;    Samuel    Perley, 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  151 

Sea  Brook ;  Thomas  Pierce,  Scarboro,  Me. ;  John  INIorri- 
son,  Petersburgh ;  Simon  Williams,  Windham ;  John 
Strickland,  Oakham. 

Met  at  Boston  according  to  appointment  October  24th, 
1770,  when  it  was  unanimously  resolved  that  a  time  and 
place  be  appointed  for  an  actual  division.  Mr.  Gilmore 
had  fulfilled  his  appointments  of  the  last  session,  and  was 
now  appointed  to  Voluntown  for  the  winter.  They  de- 
ferred presenting  a  call  from  Merrimac  to  Mr.  Noble  until 
they  receive  more  light  respecting  a  greater  unanimity. 

Mr.  John  Eliot  offered  himself  as  a  probationer,  pre- 
sented testimonials  very  satisfactory,  together  with  a  nar- 
rative of  the  work  of  God  on  his  soul,  of  which  the  Pres- 
bytery unanimously  approve,  and  he  was  received. 

Finding  peace  increasing  in  their  bounds,  and  their 
members  scattered  at  inconvenient  distances  from  Palmer, 
Mass.,  to  Scarboro,  in  Maine,  they  now  resolve  upon  pre- 
paring the  way  for  the  formation  of  a  Synod  with  Presby- 
teries of  convenient  bounds  ;  at  their  meeting  in  London- 
derr}^  May  29th,  1771,  owing  to  the  absence  of  Moorehead 
and  Parsons,  the  project  of  forming  a  Synod  was  further 
delaj^ed.     Inter  alia. 

Received  the  complaint  of  David  Steele  and  Wm.  McNee 
against  the  Rev.  John  Morrison,  of  Peterboro,  and  ap- 
pointed a  committee  of  five  ministers,  with  their  elders, 
to  meet  there  and  finally  determine  the  affair  now 
pending. 

At  Seabrook,  N.  H.,  August  20th,  1771,  their  meeting 
was  opened  with  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  D.  McGregor  from 
Joel  ii.  17.  This  subject  might  have  been  suggested  by 
the  attitude  of  Moorehead  and  Parsons  towards  each 
other.  They  had  "  fallen  out  b}^  the  way,"  and  whether  age 
was  or  was  not  maturing  for  each  of  them  "  a  crown  of 
righteousness,"  in  them  "the  wrath  of  man  was  not  work- 
ing the  righteousness  of  God." 

While  Moorehead's  reasons  for  absence  were  sustained, 
Parsons,  when  asked  his  reasons  for  non-attendance  for 
some  time  past,  stated  tliat  "  a  personal  difference  between 
them  so  controlled  his  feelings,  that  he  could  not  in  con- 
science sit  in  court  with  Moorehead  until  it  be  settled." 
By  his  statements  to  members  of  Presbytery,  it  was  found 
that  the  conscience  of  Moorehead  operated  in  the  same 


152  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

way  toward  Parsons ;  and  Moorehead  was  enjoined  to  lay 
his  grievances  in  a  legal  way  before  the  Presbytery  at  its 
next  meeting.  The  dividing  of  the  Presbytery  was  post- 
poned ;  the  moderation  of  a  call  to  Blandford  was  granted  ; 
Nottingham  was  received  under  Presbytery ;  Mr.  Morrison 
was  restored  to  full  standing,  and  to  the  exercise  of  his 
ministry  in  Peterboro,  N.  H.  And  in  view  of  this,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  McGregor  was  appointed  "to  write  to  the  con- 
gregation a  letter  suitable  to  their  circumstances,  recom- 
mending to  them  a  punctual  attendance  on  the  stated  ad- 
ministration in  their  own  parish.  At  Newbur3^port,  May 
13th,  1772,  six  ministers  present  and  five  absent.  As  Mr. 
John  Morrison  had  left  Peterboro,  a  citation  was  sent  to 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Sproat,  of  Philadelphia,  to  present  to  him, 
and  an  account  of  his  late  conduct  was  to  be  forwarded  to 
the  same. 

The  Rev.  Messrs.  McGregor  and  Williams  were  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  endeavor  to  effect  a  reconciliation 
between  Moorehead  and  Parsons  before  the  next  meeting. 
The  dividing  of  the  Presbytery  was  again  "  postponed  to 
the  next  session."  Mr.  Patrick  was  recommended  to  take 
the  call  presented  to  him  into  his  serious  consideration, 
and  the  Elders  of  Nottingham  were  to  be  installed  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Williams  before  next  meeting.  It  was  voted, 
That  the  Rev.  Mr.  Williams  engross  the  papers  belonging 
to  Presbytery  in  a  book ;  that  Messrs.  McGregor,  Houston 
and  Williams  direct  the  missionary  labors  of  Mr.  Gilmore 
in  the  vacancies  under  Presbytery ;  and  that  a  letter  be 
written  to  the  society  of  Hampton  Falls,  respecting  their 
late  conduct  since  they  were  received  under  our  care. 

Mr.  Patrick  accepted  the  call  from  Blandford,  and  his 
ordination  and  installation  were  appointed  to  take  place 
on  the  last  Thursday  of  June  next. 

"  Voted,  that  the  Rev.  Messrs.  McLelland,  Jones,  Smith 
and  Thair  be  invited  to  take  part."  Londonderry,  May 
26th,  1773. 

'^Resolved,  That  Mr.  Parsons'  excuse  be  suspended;  that 
Mr.  Moorehead  be  cited  once  more  to  appear  before  Pres- 
bytery to  give  an  account  of  his  non-attendance,  to  apolo- 
gize for  his  absence  several  years  past,  '  and  to  explain 
some  things  in  his  last  letter  which  in  our  oj)inion  need  a 
comment.' " 


IN   NEW  ENGLAND.  153 

Definite  arrangements  were  now  to  be  made  by  ap- 
pointed parties  for  the  erection  of  the  proposed  Synod. 

Presbytery  now  signified,  very  properly,  "  its  disappro- 
bation of  the  expediency  of  an  adjourned  meeting  of  an 
equal  number  of  Presbyterian  and  Congregationalist  min- 
isters in  order  to  settle  the  affairs  of  Oakham,  and  con- 
sider the  Rev.  Mr.  Strickland  and  the  Presbyterians  there 
inadvertent  in  coming  into  such  an  expedient.  Presby- 
tery now  appointed  to  sit  on  the  last  Wednesday  of  May 
next  (1774;,  at  Rev.  ^Lr.  Baldwin's:  "  now,  without  stating 
when  or  how  Mr.  Baldwin  was  removed  from  Palmer  to 
Kingston,  called  '"Mr.  Baldwin's"  on  their  minutes. 

Londonderry,  July  2d,  1773,  Presbytery  met  according 
to  adjournment.  A  committee  reported  that  they  had  or- 
dained Mr.  George  Gilmore,  who  had  landed  in  Philadel- 
phia September  9th,  1769,  and  installed  the  Rev.  Alexan- 
der McLean  at  Bristol,  Maine,  on  May  26th,  according  to 
appointment.  Mr.  Gilmore  was  instructed  to  consult 
Messrs.  McGregor,  Houston  and  Williams,  respecting  his 
preaching  in  the  vacancies  in  their  parts.  The  Rev.  Alex- 
ander McLean  was  received  on  testimonials  from  the  Pres- 
bytery of  New  Brunswick. 

We  have  seen  the  Rev.  John  Moorehead  suspended  by 
the  Londonderry  Presbyter}^  and  now  he  has  fallen  under 
the  displeasure  of  the  one  which  he  was,  more  largely  than 
any  other  person,  the  agent  in  erecting.  The  opposite 
positions  toward  Murray  which  they  took,  was  the  par- 
ticular "  root  of  bitterness  "  which  had  sprung  up  between 
them.  Parsons  sustained  him  and  Moorehead  opposed 
him.  They  were  "men  of  like  passions  Avith  others,"  and 
they  had  parted  sorrowfully.  Moorehead  for  years  suffered 
under  "  a  cruel  disease,"  which  might  have  somewhat 
affected  his  equanimity  and  patience,  and  which  at  last 
brought  him  suddenly  to  the  grave.  ''  On  the  Lord's  day 
he  preached  twice,  seemingly  in  better  health  than  he  had 
been  for  a  long  time  before.  But  his  disease  returned  that 
day  and  continued  till  his  death,  on  Thursday,  December 


'■^  Of  him  a  very  favorable  notice  is  given  in  the  3Ia.ssachusetts  Gazette, 
December  9t.h,  1773. 

"  In  thirty-nine  years  (1730-1769)  Mr.  Moorehead  baptized  691  per- 
sons, and  in  forty-three  years  married  447  couples.  He  ceased  to  bap- 
tize (as  shown  by  his  record)  four  years  before  his  death,  yet  continued 
to  marry  until  August,  1773." 


154  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

But  to  return  to  the  Boston  Presbytery.  We  find  that, 
although  Congregationalism  was  now  145  years  old,  it  did 
not  bind  the  churches  on  the  spot  of  its  birth  in  -Salem  in 
harmony.  It  was  not  "sufficiently  divine"  to  do  this. 
Hence,  at  a  meeting  at  Kingston,  N.  H.,  on  May  26th, 
1774,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Nathaniel  Whittaker  and  his  congrega- 
tion, of  Salem,  Mass.,  were  admitted. 

Rev.  John  Morrison  was  again  cited  to  appear  for  trial. 
Not  only  did  the  Presbytery  take  heed  to  the  wrong-doing 
of  pastors,  such  as  Morrison,  but  also  to  the  membership 
of  the  church,  for  Thomas  Quintin,  James  Kelly  and  their 
wives,  under  discipline,  were  at  this  time  acquitted  of 
charges  antinuptial  and  re-admitted  to  church  privileges. 

Then  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Nathaniel  Merrill  and  Aaron 
Hutchison  appeared,  gave  good  satisfaction  respecting  their 
standing,  and  stated  their  motives  for  embracing  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  Presbyterian  church.  In  view  of  which  they 
were  received  into  full  fellowship,  and  a  committee  were 
appointed  to  sit  in  the  congregation  of  Boscawen,  N.  H., 
to  consult  matters  there  between  the  Rev.  Mr.  Merrill  and 
that  society,  and  to  inquire  into  the  propriety  of  receiving 
it  under  watch  and  care.  A  similar  committee  were  ap- 
pointed to  visit  Blandford,  and  finally  determine  matters 
respecting  the  Rev.  Mr.  Patrick  and  that  society. 

Changes  are  usually,  or  at  least  oftentimes,  rung  upon 
all  departments  of  the  Christian  church  each  half  century, 
and  so  it  was  here.  Up  till  this  period.  May  26th,  1774, 
those  who  were  trained  up  Presbyterians  had,  in  worship, 
used  the  book  of  Psalms,  while  those  who  were  novices  in 
Presbyterianism,  or  viewed  it  as  a  good  expedient,  or 
adopted  it  as  the  path  to  thrift,  brought  with  them  what 
they  previously  used  in  praise  as  Congregationalists,  pro- 
bably in  most  cases  "  the  Bay  State  version "  of  Elliot, 
Mather  and  Weld. 

The  fathers  had  passed  away,  and  now  a  new  generation 
were  acting  "  who  knew  not  Joseph."  The  139  psalms, 
imitated  by  Dr.  Watts,  had  been  offered  in  the  Boston 
market  since  1741.  Thirty-three  years  of  warfare  had  al- 
most silenced  "  the  Bay  State  version,"  and  now  the  Rev. 
Moses  Baldwin  has  for  the  imitations  "  a  felt  want,"  and 
the  Presbytery  "  having  discoursed  upon  the  affair,"  give 
him  liberty  to  use  them  at  "discretion." 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  155 

Rottenness  now  entered  into  the  bones  of  their  Presby- 
terianism,  and  although  their  congregations  were  exten- 
sively increased  in  numbers,  and  expanded  into  a  Synod, 
yet  it  only  lasted  for  a  few  years,  and  collapsed  like  a  bal- 
loon in  mid-heavens  when  the  valve  became  defective. 
The  division  of  Presbytery  was  farther  postponed.  Hutchi- 
son and  Gilmore  were  appointed  to  supply  the  vacancies, 
Pelham,  Dunbarton,  Francestown  and  Weirtown,  New 
Erection. 

Salem,  Mass.,  September  13th,  1774,  Presbytery  met. 
Morrison  was  again  cited.  It  was  found  that  a  committee 
had  been,  since  Mr.  Moorehead's  death,  sent  to  Boston. 
They  reported,  their  minutes  were  read  and  approved  by 
Presbytery. 

''Voted  unanir.ion^lv,  That,  in  consequence  of  his  peni- 
tential confession,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Patrick  be  restored  to  good 
standing,  and  wliile  he  is  permitted  to  exercise  his  minis- 
terial function,  his  dismission  from  his  congregation  is 
continued  till  next  meeting.  The  appeal  from  Blandford 
was  sustained,  and  it  is  to  be  tried  at  next  meeting. 

"  Ordered,  That  the  Rev.  John  Houston  be  appointed  to 
table  complaints  against  the  Rev.  John  Morrison  at  next 
meeting,"  at  Salem,  September  loth,  1774. 

As  noticed,  the  Presbytery  at  the  Eastvmrd  appointed  at 
Pownalboro,  on  August  16th,  1774,  the  Rev.  John  Murray 
to  go  as  a  commissioner  to  the  Boston  Presbytery  to  meet 
at  Salem  at  this  date,  and  that  he  reported  that  "  various 
animosities  still  prevailed  between  the  ministers  that  way," 
but  he  did  not  state  that  he  was  the  cause,  or,  at  least,  the 
occasion  of  them.  He  had  previously  intimated  a  desire 
to  unite  with  the  Boston  Presbytery.  This  Moorehead,  in 
view  of  his  case,  sternly  opposed,  while  Parsons,  admiring 
the  man,  and  having  less  veneration  for  strict  Presbyterian 
discipline,  advocated  it.  Hence,  during  the  last  years  of 
their  lives,  "  brotherly  love "  between  them  was  not  per- 
mitted to  "  continue." 

On  considering  at  this  meeting  the  propriety  or  impro- 
priety of  "receiving  him  in  charity  as  a  Christian  brother, 
it  was  carried  in  the  negative,"  Parsons,  Houston,  Williams, 
Cross,  Smith  and  Crawford  dissenting.  These  were  for 
receiving  Mr.  Murray  and  probably  his  Presbytery.  Dur- 
ing the  past  nine  months,  since  the  death  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 


156  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Moorehead,  the  Long  Lane  congregation  in  Boston  had 
become  anxious  to  call  him  as  their  pastor,  and  this  could 
be  done  only  by  the  authority  of  the  Boston  Presbytery. 

In  order  to  present  to  him  their  call  and  install  him, 
that  court  must  first  receive  him,  or  recognize  the  lawful 
construction  of  his  Presbytery  which,  spider-like,  he  had 
produced  from  his  own  personal  treasures  of  Presbyterial 
power.     This  they  did  not  do. 

Hence,  not  only  the  "animosities,"  but  also  the  fact, 
that  on  September  20th,  1774,  the  Long  Lane  congregation 
entered  their  "  declinature  "  of  the  authority  of  the  Boston 
Presbytery,  while  a  minority  of  thirty  adhered  to  it. 
Hence,  the  succeeding  fact,  that  at  Brunswick,  on  October 
12th,  1774,  Mr.  John  McLean  presented  a  call  from  the 
congregation  in  Boston  to  have  the  Rev.  John  ^lurray  re- 
moved there.  This  call  was  by  "the  Presbytery  at  the 
Eastward"  considered  regular,  as  the  congregation  had 
declined  the  authority  of  the  Boston  Presl:)ytery,  and  it 
was  (as  such)  sustained. 

Now  "  Greek  met  Greek,"  and  "  then  came  the  tug  of 
war."  His  host  of  friends  in  Booth})ay  became  aroused. 
When  the  call  was  presented  to  him,  he  promised,  that  if 
his  "  people  first  had  a  hearing  by  their  commissioners, 
that  he  would  then  submit  the  matter  entirely  to  the 
Presbytery,  and  endeavor  to  be  obedient  to  their  decision." 

On  the  next  day  Mr.  John  Beath  (formerly  from  Long 
Lane  congregation,  but  now),  the  Elder  from  Boothbay, 
presented  a  remonstrance  on  behalf  of  said  church  and 
town,  against  any  measure  being  taken  for  Mr.  Murray's 
removal  to  Boston,  wdiich  was  read  and  ordered  to  be  kept 
in  retentis  and  copies  given  to  both  parties. 

At  an  adjourned  meeting  at  Brunswick,  on  November 
23d,  1774,  Mr.  John  McLean,  as  commissioner,  was  con- 
fronted by  Messrs.  John  Beath  and  Paul  Reed  as  commis- 
sioners from  Boothbay,  and  by  commissioners  presenting 
a  remonstrance  from  the  church  in  Bristol. 

The  argumentation  was  earnest  and  long  on  both  sides, 
and  McLean,  resorting  to  delay,  adduced  various  reasons 
why  his  request  sliould  be  granted,  which,  owing  to  the 
thinness  of  the  meeting,  occasioned  by  the  severity  of  the 
weather  and  the  desire  of  having  the  judgment  of  the  full 
Presbytery,  was  agreed  to,  and  the  matter  was  deferred. 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  157 

At  Brunswick,  IVIay  8th,  1775.  White  Mr.  McLean  did 
not  appear,  still  the  minutes  and  his  ]">ai)ers  were  before 
the  court,  together  with  a  letter  from  the  session  of  the 
I^ong  Lane  church.  These  were  read,  and  the  Presbytery, 
after  "mature  consideration  of  the  case,  owing  to  the 
paucit}^  of  members  present,  resolved  to  adjourn  the  deci- 
sion of  that  affair  till  next  meeting,  and  the  clerk  was  or- 
dered to  enclose  in  his  answer  to  said  letter  a  copy  of  the 
minute  quum  'primumy 

Measures  were  now  taken  for  some  relief  for  Topsham 
congregation,  which  was  then  vacant,  while  Samuel 
Wheeler  continued  to  roam  about  and  preach  there,  hav- 
ing thrown  off  all  restraint,  and  vexed  tlie  people  so,  that 
the}'  refused  almost  universally  to  hear  him.  Any  minis- 
ter of  the  body,  when  requested  b}'  their  session,  was  au- 
thorized to  baptize  the  children  of  parents  recommended 
by  the  session. 

An  application  from  the  Presbyterian  church  in  New- 
bur3^port,  praying  that  said  church  and  the  Rev.  Jonathan 
Parsons,  their  pastor,  be  received  under  the  w\atch  and 
care  of  this  Presbytery,  was  now  made.  They  were  re- 
ceived accordingly.  Mr.  Parsons  was  installed  there  on 
March  19th,  1746,  by  a  mutual  compact  between  himself, 
and  the  clerk  replying  for  the  rest.  His  constitution  was 
delicate  since  1754,  and  in  1772  his  public  labors  w^ere  sus- 
])ended  by  sickness.  He  had  years  previously  asked  for  a 
colleague,  and  as  he  had  entertained  friendship  for  Mr. 
JMurray,  so  his  congregation  now  extended  to  him  a  call, 
and  "  Mr.  Moses  Little,  their  commissioner,  was  heard  on 
his  reasons  therefore."  The  translation  was  vigorously 
opposed  by  the  congregation  of  Boothbay,  who  had  now 
for  years  actively  endeavored  to  maintain  their  rights 
against  those  who,  as  well  as  themselves,  "  coveted  ear- 
nestly the  best  gifts."  Hence  the  prosecution  of  the  case 
was  deferred. 

On  "  Thursday,  May  9th,  1776,  upon  reading  the  min- 
utes, as  to  the  Boston  call,  it  was  moved  and  seconded, 
that  as  there  was  now  a  full  meeting  of  members,  and  that 
the  interest  of  that  valuable  congregation,  of  which  the 
utmost  tenderness  is  an  especial  duty  in  its  present  dis- 
tress, might  greatly  suffer  by  our  deferring  judgment  any 
longer."     The  call  and  relative  papers,  the  protest  and  re- 


158  HISTORY    OF   PRESBYTERIANTSM 

monstrance,  and  the  abstracts  of  the  reasons  of  both  par- 
ties were  read.  The  Presbytery  then  considered  their 
powers  in  regard  to  the  removal  of  any  pastor  within  their 
bounds,  and  that  they  had  now  ample  light  in  the  matter 
of  the  Boston  call,  resolved  as  follows,  (/.  e.):  "  It  is  the  judg- 
ment of  this  Presbytery,  after  a  serious  consideration  of 
the  matter,  resi)ecting  tlie  removal  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Murray 
from  his  pastoral  relation  to  the  church  in  Bootlibay  to 
the  church  in  Boston,  that  it  is  by  no  means  expedient  in 
the  present  state  and  circumstances  of  that  town  and 
people." 

Thus,  after  nineteen  months  of  exertion,  the  people  in 
Long  Lane  were  disap[)ointed.  It  is  true  the  people  at 
Boothbay  had  a  lawful  chiim  of  ten  years'  ownership,  and 
were  the  man's  own  ecclesiastical  offspring,  but  they  were 
now  established  in  the  faith,  and  might  have  found 
another  pastor,  although  not  of  equal  power  and  attract- 
iveness. Not  only  so,  as  Presbyterians  had  then  and  have 
now  no  abiding  hold  of  their  church  estate,  so  that  they 
can  under  civil  law  enjoy  the  use  of  it ;  and  the  people  in 
Long  Lane  held  theirs,  amounting  then  to  about  one 
twenty-four  hundretli  part  of  the  town  of  l>oston,  by  a  trust 
deed  of  a  charitable  use  and  nature,  Mr.  Murray,  with  his 
powers  and  piety,  might  have  instrumentally  retained  the 
foothold  which  Presbyterianism  then  had,  extended  widely 
"  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour,"  and  curtailed  exten- 
sively that  volume  of  error,  wliich  eventually  culminated 
in  the  moonlight  of  Christianity,  Unitarian  Congregation- 
alism. 

He  had,  however,  other  missions  to  fulfil ;  after  taking 
the  steps  which  we  have  noticed,  the  Presbytery  the  same 
day  heard  the  commissioner  from  Newburyport  in  sup- 
port of  the  call  from  that  church  to  Mr.  Murray. 

On  July  3d,  1776,  the  Presbytery  met  at  New  Market, 
when  the  clerk  reported  that  in  obedience  to  the  order  of 
our  last,  he  has  transmitted  the  minutes  respecting  the 
Boston  call  to  the  session  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
there.  After  reading  the  remonstrance  from  Boolhbay, 
the  petition  from  Newburyport  was  heard,  and  on  Thurs- 
day, July  4th,  177G,  Presbytery  met  according  to  adjourn- 
ment, when  the  respective  reasons  for  and  against  the 
Newbur^^port  call  were  heard  in  detail.     After  long  de- 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  159 

bate,  the  commissioner  from  BoothbiJy  moved,  and  the 
others  concurred  to  defer  it. 

On  that  eventful  day  Presbytery  also  granted  vacant 
churches  the  libert}'  to  send  each  two  ruling  elders  to  each 
meeting  of  Presbytery.  "  Eventful  "  because  that  while  the 
declaration  of  independence  was  not  signed  until  the 
second  day  of  August  following,  it  was  adopted  on  July 
^th,  1776. 

At  the  next  meeting,  on  October  9th,  at  Falmouth,  it 
was  reported  that  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Parsons  had  died 
July  19th,  1776,  at  the  age  of  sevent^^-one — some  two 
years,  seven  months  and  seventeen  days  after  his  former 
co-presbyter,  Moorehead.  It  is  matter  of  sorrow  that  they 
were  alienated  from  each  other  at  death. 

As  Parsons  and  his  congregation  (at  his  demise)  were 
under  "  the  Presbytery  at  the  Eastward,"  Newburyport, 
now,  that  Boston  was  out  of  the  way,  desired  the  ser-  . 
vices  of  this  pre-eminent  man.  For  him  they  persistently 
applied,  and  for  years  Boothbay  as  vigorously  protested. 
Hence  we  find  that  at  "  Cape  Elizabeth,  on  June  14th,  1780, 
after  a  sermon  by  Prince  on  the  doctrine  of  original  sin," 
as  expressed  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
agreeable  to  the  order  of  our  last,  Mr.  Murray's  removal 
from  Boothbay  was  opposed,  and  answered  by  a  series  of 
reasons.  Of  these,  number  five  was  "for  preaching  to  and 
keeping  from  desolation  the  largest  congregation  in  New 
England,  where  there  are  not  less  than  ten  times  the  num- 
ber of  hearers  he  can  preach  to  at  Boothbay."  "Eighth, 
for  saving  that  numerous  society  from  being  overrun  with 
errors,  its  government  overcome,  and  itself  split  and 
ruined." 

"  For  these  reasons  the  Presbytery  required  and  en- 
joined said  congregation  at  Newburyport  to  receive  and 
acknowledge  him,  the  said  Rev.  John  Murray,  as  their 
stated  pastor  in  the  Lord,  by  virtue  of  their  call,  his  ac- 
ceptance, and  the  solemn  act  of  transportation  as  fully  to 
all  intents  and  purposes  whatever,  as  by  any  other  sort  of 
installation  or  induction  thereunto,  and  to  yield  to  all 
his  legal  and  constitutional  acts  of  office,  all  faithful  sub- 
mission and  obedience  in  the  Lord.  And  at  all  times  to 
do  what  in  them  lies  to  strengthen  his  hands  and  en- 
courage his  heart  under  the  peculiar  difficulties  of  the  sit- 
uation in  which  he  is  hereby  placed." 


160  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

This  was  a  day 'of  desolation  for  the  congregation  at 
Boothbay.  They  had  for  nearly  fourteen  years  hung 
with  devotion  on  his  lips ;  in  seasons  of  vast  and  imminent 
danger  they  had  shared  with  him  perils  of  which  he  was 
extensively  both  the  cause  and  the  occasion ;  and  now 
they  were  by  the  demands  of  Divine  Providence  and  the 
authority  of  their  own  Presbytery  bereft  of  him  for  whom 
,for  some  six  years  they  had  with  heroic  fortitude  con- 
tended against  judicious  and  able  commissioners  from 
other  churches.  All  that  can  now  be  officially  done  is  not 
neglected. 

For  them  Presbytery  express  and  record  their  pro- 
found "  sympathy."  They  were  then  "  sheep  having  no  " 
under  "  shepherd ;"  and  while  on  August  11th,  1784,  Pres- 
bytery "received  a  letter  from  Boothbay,  requesting  a 
supply,"  they  do  not  appear  to  have  received  any  of  a  per- 
manent character,  and  they  eventually  in  the  subsequent 
eight  years  in  common  with  all  Presbyterianism  in  Maine, 
fell  asleep  in  the  oblivious  embrace  of  surrounding  and 
assimilating  Congregationalism. 


IN   NEW    ENGLAND.  IGl 


CHAPTER  VI. 

1768-1793— Difficulties— They  kept  watch— •'  Disannexed  "-Routine 
duties — "Condescending" — Female  members  to  be  received  if  they 
return — Urquliart — Baich — Merrill's  dismission — Boston  society  cited 
— November,  1774 — "Considering  tiie  man" — A  plan  for  a  Synod 
overtured — Salem  Church  burnt — Aid — Dartmouth  College — Hutc  h- 
inson's  petition — Recommendation  of  a  plan  of  Synod — Three  Pies- 
byteries — Forbearance  a  duty — Pastoral  visitation  and  catechising 
recommended — Not  too  close  to  their  notes  in  the  pulpit — Exposition 
reconmiended — License — Publication  of  Banns  recommended — Sup- 
plies— Synod  formed  May  31,  1775 — Met  at  7.30  a.  m.,  June  1st — 
Urquliart  ordained  at  St.  George's  in  September — Merrill  at  Pelham 
in  September — Taggart  asks  for  license — His  examination — License 
— Third  Church,  Salem — Withdrawing  irregularly — The  circum- 
stances of  the  times — The  smell  of  gun-powder — A  priori — A  pos- 
teriori— Adopted  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  and  called  the 
Synod  of  New  England — Some  development  and  some  decay — Appre- 
ciated— A  generation  gone — Comforts — An  era  of  prosperity  now 
opening — Population  too  dense — Emigration — Truro,  Nova  Scotia — 
Civil  and  religious  liberty  tiiere — Cherry  Valley,  N.  V.,  il welling 
safely — Trouble  came — War — Colonies  revolt — Rev.  F.  MaKemie — 
Mecklenburgh  Convention — Declaration  of  Independence — This  per- 
secution, says  Bancroft — Bishops — September  4th,  1776,  "are  any- 
inimical?  can  have  no  seat  here" — John  Morrison  deposed — Rev. 
John  Houston  falters  and  promises  fealty,  but  does  not  satisfy  Synod 
or  Bedford  either — Dismissed — Peril — French  war  in  1744-69— Cape 
Breton — Dr.  Thornton — Crown  Point — Three  Captains  from  Derry — 
Two  Starks  and  Rogers — No  surplus  of  affection  for  Britain  after  the 
"  Boston  Massacre  " — John  Stark  in  his  Sawmill,  and  in  ten  minutes 
left  for  Cambridge — "Distressing  apprehensions" — Future  homes — 
The  loyalty  of  the  Scotch-Irish  dissipated — Troops  in  Boston,  1768 — 
Blood  Drawn — The  drama  opened — The  state  of  society  domestically 
— Home  products — Large  Spinning  Wheel — Wives  and  mothers 
worth  having — The  little  wheel — Flax — Linen — Inspectors  of  it  ap- 
pointed in  Derry  in  1748 — Forty  pounds  and  a  diamond  ring  premium 
for  linen  woven  for  Washington  and  his  officers — Females  industrious 
— Extravagance — Spinning  schools — Daughters  of  Liberty,  in  his 
house  in  one  day  they  spun  262  skeins  and  gave  it  to  Mr.  Moorehead 
— Tunes,  anthems  and  liberty  songs  in  the  evening,  animated  by  the 
"sons  of  liberty" — 100  spinners  in  Mr.  Moorehead's  society — Notices 
of  one  man — George  Reid — Bunker  Hill — His  commission  January 
Ist^  1776— Colonel  of  the  Army  of  the  U.  S.  in  1783— Served  during 
11 


162  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  entire  war — His  wife — Their  correspondence — The  means  of 
grace — Not  merely  a  matter  of  intellect — Not  yet  modern  "gush  " — 
"  Valley  Forge" — A  coiitinuaiue — These  items  form  but  a  small  part 
- — Not  only  in  the  bounds  of  tht-  Synod,  but  by  John  Murray  and  his 
Presbytery,  w;{s  patriotism  displayed — He  was  known  and  felt  in  Lon- 
don, and  £500  sterling  were  ofiered  for  his  person,  but  no  man  in 
Maine  would  take  the  money — His  Presbytery  release  him  from  Booth- 
bay — Aids  the  committee  of  safety  of  New  Hampsliireat  Exeter — He 
wandered  for  about  two  years  stirring  up  the  people — A  coiuparntive 
view  with  Samuel  Adams  and  Hancock — The  race  in  America — The 
Key  Note — Tlie  Scotch  version — Waxhaw — Captain  D.  McCleary — 
Tine  bullet — We  turn  to  ecclesiastical  matters — Career  of  Key.  J. 
Murray — His  power  as  a  preacher — Filled  a  company  in  two  hours, 
where  tiie  ofiicers  had  labored  three  days  in  vain — "  Let  the  dinner 
go" — Successful  in  the  ministry — Awakening  under  it — Plan  of  Vis- 
iting— His  meekness,  etc.,  etc. — Active  in  promoting  religion — His 
daily  views — Died  March  13th,  1793 — A  burse — His  widow  asked  the 
fund  which  he  had  given  for  it. 

Persons  were  appointed  by  the  Boston  Presbytery  to 
make  definite  arrangements  for  the  formation  of  a  Synod. 

They  for  some  years  experienced  difficulties  in  executing 
the  trust  by  the  death  of  ^Moorehead,  and  the  witlidrawal 
of  Parsons,  to  say  nothing  of  several  minor  untoward  mat- 
ters. Still  they'^kept  watch  and  grew.  At  a  three  days' 
meeting  of  the  court  in  Salem  (Sep.  I3th-15th),  1774,  be- 
side the  attention  given  to  Morrison's  case,  Merrill's  and 
Patrick's  "affairs,"  the  minute  of  the  committee  sent  to 
Boston  was  read  and  approved.  The  society  at  Canter- 
bury was  taken  under  their  care,  instructions  were  given  to 
supplies  of  vacancies,  the  society  at  Hampton  Falls  was 
"  disannexed,"  the  appeal  from  Blandford  was  sustained, 
and  to  be  tried  at  a  future  session,  supply  of  preaching 
and  the  moderation  of  a  call  were  granted  at  Pelham.  Dr. 
Whittaker  and  the  aggrieved  members  of  his  church  are 
tendered  counsel ;  his  bearing  to  the  disturbers  of  his  peace 
was  considered  "  condescending,"  and  the  turbulent  ones 
were  ordered  to  be  dismissed. 

^^Resolved,  That  as  there  are  a  number  of  female  mem- 
bers not  adverted  unto  in  the  foregoing  minute,  who  have 
absented  themselves  from  this  (Salem )  church,  that  if  they 
see  fit  to  return  any  time  before  next  January  (1775),  they 
be  received,  if  not,  be  dismissed  also." 

The  license  of  Mr.  John  Urquhart,  from  the  Presbytery 
of  Allon,  Scotland,  appeared  satisfactory,  and  on  it  he  was 
received  as  a  probationer. 


IX    ::EV»'    ENGLAND.  163 

The  Rev.  Benjamin  Balch,  on  presenting  testimonials, 
promising  due  submission,  strict  adherence  to  our  stand- 
ards, and  to  subscribe  the  formula  when  required,  was,  on 
request,  received  as  a  member. 

"  No  objections  appearing  against  the  dismission  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Merrill,  the  conduct  of  the  committee  is  approved." 
The  Rev.  Mr,  McGregor  was  now  ai)pointed  to  write  a  let- 
ter to  the  Boston  society,  respecting  their  conduct  in  en- 
tering their  declinature,  and  to  cite  them  to  appear  at  the 
next  session.  Balch  and  Urquhart  were  appointed  to  sup- 
2)1}^  vacancies. 

At  Newburyport,  November  8th,  1774,  eight  ministers 
and  seven  elders  were  present,  and  seven  ministers  were 
absent ;  of  Mitchell,  an  absentee,  the  excuse  was  sustained, 
"  considering  the  man."     Others  excused  and  some  not. 

A  large  amount  of  business  was  transacted,  and  they 
notice  tliat  they  "  are  glad  to  find  so  large  a  number  of  the 
church  nnd  congregation  of  Long  Lane,  some  thirty  per- 
sons still  adhering  to  this  Presbytery,  and  good  order,  in 
opposition  to  the  Decliners." 

A  plan  for  a  Synod  was  now  ordered  to  be  "  laid  before 
the  elderships  of  every  congregation  respectively  (or  sent 
down  in  overture),  in  order  to  prepare  matters,  to  adopt 
the  same  at  next  stated  sitting." 

On  behalf  of  the  church  of  Salem,  who  have  lost  their 
meeting-house  by  fire,  it  was  ordered  that  "  their  case  be 
recommended  to  the  charitable  contributions  of  each  con- 
gregation in  this  body." 

As  the  founders  of  Dartmouth  College  (the  fourth  in 
New  England,  founded  in  1769)  were  extensively  Presby- 
terians, "the  Rev.  Mr.  Hutchinson  now  petitioned  with 
regard  to  forming  a  Presbytery  at  Dartmouth.  It  was 
recommended  to  him  to  use  the  utmost  prudent  and  effec- 
tual means  to  carry  that  measure  into  execution,  and  to 
report  his  doings  thereon  at  the  next  meeting  of  Pres- 
bytery." 

November  10th,  1774.  Opened  with  prayer.  "After 
solemn  and  serious  consideration  of  the  plan  of  our  Synod, 
the  following  conclusion  "  was  reached,  viz. : 

"That  Messrs.  Parsons,  Whittaker,  Perley,  McLean  and 
Pearce,  with  their  congregations,  and  also  the  congregation 
of  Boston,  now  under  their  care,  with  the  other  vacancies 


164  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

in  their  bounds,  together  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Balch,  shall 
(if  the  plan  be  adopted  according  to  the  preceding  minute) 
be  the  Eastern  Presbytery  and  be  called  the  Presbytery  of 
Newburyport. '^    -        * '-■*    / 

''  Messrs.  McGregor,  Mitchell,  Williams  and  Strickland, 
with  tlicir  congregations  and  the  vacancies  within  their 
bounds  be  called  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry,  or  Mid- 
dle one.  Messrs.  Houston  and  Baldwin,  with  their  con- 
gregations, togetlier  with  the  congregations  of  Blandford, 
Pelham  and  Coleraine,  also  Messrs.  Hutchinson,  Merrill, 
Gilmore  and  Patrick,  shall  be  the  Western  Presbytery  to 
be  called  the  Presbytery  of  Palmer. 

"Appointed  to  moot  in  Seabrook,  N.  H.,  May  31st,  1775, 
then  the  S}- nod  to  l)c  actuall}'  formed  and  receive  its  name." 
It  is  further  stated  that  "  charitable  mutual  forbearance 
in  lesser  things  appears  to  be  a  plain  duty." 

"  Yet,  as  uniformity,  so  far  as  it  can  be  obtained,  is 
beautiful  in  its  nature  and  salutary  in  its  consequences, 
it  is  recommended  to  every  minister  in  this  Presbytery, 
that  he  perform  a  pastoral  visitation  and  catechising  of 
his  whole  Hock  once  a  year,  or,  at  least,  once  in  two  3^ears, 
or,  if  the  adults  will  not  at  first  submit  to  the  latter,  that 
he  will  catechise  the  children  and  youth,  and  use  his  best 
endeavors  gradually  to  introduce  it  among  the  adults.  It 
is  also  recommended  to  ministers,  and  especialh'  to  joreach- 
ing  probationers,  that  they  do  not  too  closely  confine  them- 
selves to  their  notes,  but  that  they  commit  their  discourses 
to  memory,  at  least  in  part." 

"  It  is  recommended  to  all  preachers  that  they  make  the 
exposition  of  the  Scriptures  an  ordinary  part  of  their  pul- 
pit work." 

"As  much  difficulty  arises  from  marrying  with  license, 
and  though  it  seems  impossible,  under  our  present  circum- 
stances, to  prevent  this  practice,  yet  Ave  prefer  the  publi- 
cation of  banns,  as  is  practised  by  the  Presbyterians  abroad, 
and  earnestly  recommend  to  our  several  congregations  to 
proceed  in  this  matter  accordingly." 

Dr.  Whittaker,  about  to  rebuild  his  church,  was  recom- 
mended to  the  lilDerality  of  the  public  when  he  solicits  aid ; 
and  Parsons  or  McGregor  is  to  preach  before  the  Synod, 
on  condition  they  agree. 

"Messrs.  Hutchinson  and  Merrill  were  appointed  to 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  165 

supply  at  Blandford,  Pelham,  Coleraine,  Petersburgh  and 
Middletown,  as  occasion  may  require." 

"Appointed  to  meet  in  Seabrook,  31st  of  May,  1775." 

Seabrook,  N.  H.,  May  31st,  1775.  After  a  sermon  by 
the  Rev.  David  McGregor,  from  Matt,  xviii.  20,  which  was 
approved,  constituted  with  prayer. 

Ministers  present,  McGregor,  Mitchell,  Houston,  Perley, 
Strickland,  McLean,  Merrill,  Patrick  and  Williams.  Rul- 
ing Elders,  James  Taggart,  John  Moulton,  Esq. ;  from 
Canterbury,  Henry  Hale  and  Ezekiel  Morrell,  Gain  Ar- 
mour ;  from  Salem,  Miles  Ward.  Absent,  Parsons,  Bald- 
win, Gilmore,  Hutchinson,  Whittaker  and  Balcli. 

Rev.  D.  McGregor  was  chosen  Moderator. 

They  then  continued  for  two  daf  s  to  act  as  a  Presby- 
tery, and  did  much  business,  inquiring  into  reasons  for 
absence,  postponing  the  declinature  from  Salem,  reponed 
Merrill  in  good  standing,  as  no  accusers  appeared  against 
him,  presenting  to  him  a  call  from  Pelham,  which  he  took 
into  consideration. 

Opening  at  7.30  a.  m.  on  June  1st  with  prayer,  the  Clerk 
and  his  Elder  obtained  leave  of  absence,  and  Alexander 
McLean  was  chosen  Clerk,  pro  tern.  They  then  consid- 
ered the  state  of  affairs  between  Mr.  Patrick  and  Bland- 
ford,  and  approved  of  the  conduct  of  the  first  committee 
"in  dissolving  the  pastoral  relation."  "They  gave  no 
recommendation  to  Mr.  Patrick,  because  the  first  commit- 
tee are  all  absent,  and  the  la^t  one  had  not  reported." 

Mr.  Urquhart  accepted  the  call  at  St.  George's.  He  was 
appointed  to  serve  the  Edict.  It  was  ordered  that  he  be 
ordained  there  on  the  second  Wednesday  of  September, 
by  Rev.  Messrs.  Perley  and  McLean,  with  the  assistance 
of  one  or  two  neighboring  ministers. 

Elders  were  appointed  to  be  ordained  at  Blandford. 

At  3  p.  M.  opened  with  prayer.  Mr.  Merrill  to  be  in- 
stalled at  Pelham  on  the  second  Thursday  of  September, 
by  McGregor  and  Baldwin,  with  some  assistance. 

"  Mr.  Samuel  Taggart  applying  for  license,  they  exam- 
ined his  diploma  from  Dartmouth,  satisfied  themselves 
with  his  moral  character,  and  appointed  him  to  deliver 
an  exegesis  on  the  subject :  au  necesse  fuerit  Christum  pro 
nobis  satisfacere  Justitia  Divina?  and  a  popular  sermon 
from  Matt.  xiii.  11,  both  of  which  were  some  time  ago 
prescribed  to  him  by  the  Moderator." 


166  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANTSM 

"  He  having  withdrawn,  his  discourses  were  approved. 
After  examining  him  on  personal  piety,  he  approved  of 
the  doctrines  of  the  A\'estminster  Confession  of  Faith, 
promised  subjection  in  the  Lord  to  the  Presbytery,  de- 
ckired  liis  readiness  to  subscribe  the  formula,  and  they 
then  licensed  him  to  preach  the  gospel." 

They  then  designate  the  parties  who  "  are  entitled  to 
the  immunities  and  privileges  of  the  third  church  in 
Salem,  Dr.  Whittaker's,  of  which  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Dudley, 
Leavit  and  John  Huntington  were  formerly  pastors." 

"  The  congregation  of  Seabrook  are  to  use  the  most 
effectual  means  to  settle  their  existing  difficulties,  or,  the 
Presbytery  will  feel  solemnly  bound  at  next  meeting  to 
inquire  narrowly  into  them." 

June  2d,  1775,  opened  with  prayer.  "On  account  of 
their  withdrawing  irregularly  from  this  Presbytery,  the 
Moderator,  with  Strickland,  Williams  and  Mitchell,  was 
appointed  to  write  to  the  congregation  of  Newbury  port." 

The  process  against  John  Morrison  was  forwarded  one 
stage. 

"  They  deferred  entering  upon  '  Boston  affairs '  for  this 
time,  owing  to 'the  circumstances  of  the  times.'"  The 
smell  of  gunpowder  was  becoming  too  strong. 

After  ''annexing  Peterboro  to  the  Middle  Presbytery, 
and  changing  the  name  of  the  Eastern  Presbytery  from 
Newbury  port  to  that  of  Salem,  the  plan  of  the  Synod  was 
otherwise  amended  and  subscribed  by  the  members 
present." 

The  court  "  proceeded  a  'priori^  to  shew  the  necessity  of 
government  in  the  state  and  in  the  church  ;  a 'posteriori^  to 
shew  that  there  is  in  fact  a  government  of  Divine  institu- 
tion in  the  New  Testament  church.  Nor  will  it  be  diffi- 
cult for  the  judicious  and  unbiassed,  to  find  that  Presby- 
terian church  government  has  upon  it  the  stamp  of  Divine 
authority,  that  the  churches  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Cor- 
inth, Ephesus,  etc.,  etc.,  were  Presbyterian  churches." 
After  shewing  that  there  cannot  be  a  single  Congrega- 
tional organized  church,  without  a  pastor  properly  autlior- 
ized  "  with  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presbytery  " 
this  plan  states  the  powers,  the  mode  of  lawful  increase, 
where  the  necessity  exists,  and  the  lawfulness  of  local 
separation  into  co-ordinate  church  courts,  from  which,  by 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  167 

reference,  review,  or  appeal,  matters  for  uniformity  in  doc- 
trine, government,  discipline  and  worship  can  be  brought 
for  the  purity,  peace  and  growth  of  the  whole  church,  as 
was  done  by  those  entrusted  with  the  word  and  doctrine 
at  Antioch  to  the  Synod  of  Elders  (for  Peter  and  John  de- 
clare themselves  to  be  elders)  at  Jerusalem." 

After  stating  these  and  several  other  "  points  which  no 
Presbyterian  will  controvert,"  they  gratefully  acknowledge 
the  smiles  of  Divine  Providence  on  their  common  cause  in 
New  England,  and  having  had  the  matter  under  con- 
sideration for  several  years,  they  now,  in  aggregate,  as  the 
Presbytery  of  Boston,  subdivide  into  Presbyteries  as  before 
stated. 

They  then  ordered  a  meeting  of  each  of  the  three  Pres- 
byteries twice  a  year,  beside  what  may  be  required  'pro 
re  nata.  The  manner  in  which  their  records  were  to  be 
authenticated,  business  brought  before  the  courts,  the  de- 
portment with  which  members  should  conduct  themselves 
when  officiating  judicially,  the  equal  standing  of  each 
Presbytery  without  preference,  the  appointment  of  a  stated 
clerk  of  Synod,  his  duties,  the  preservation  of  the  records, 
and  other  matters  required  for  permanent  organization 
were  now  duly  arranged  and  ordered. 

The  Synod  now  adopted  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith  and  Catechisms,  and  then  the  standing  rules  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  as  collected  by  Stewart  of  Pardovan, 
"  so  far  as  our  local  and  other  circumstances  will  allow." 

An  annual  meeting  of  Synod,  its  duties  and  its  officers, 
was  now  provided  for.  Correspondence  with  the  Synods 
of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  by  a  committee,  who  are 
to  write  to  them,  was  now  proposed.  As  there  can  be  no 
appeal  from  the  Synod,  parties  not  satisfied  with  its  deci- 
sions, can  enter  their  protest  with  their  reasons  on  the 
Synod's  books.  These,  their  then  present  "  regulations," 
may  be  altered  from  time  to  time,  as  God  may  give  them 
light ;  and  while  they  have  right  in  ecclesiastical  cases  to 
meet  as  courts,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  independent  of  the 
power  and  authority  of  civil  princes,  yet,  in  all  civil  mat- 
ters they  own  their  subjection  to  civil  authority. 

As  a  part  of  their  statute  law,  each  Presbytery  was  to 
keep  a  record  "  and  shall  enter  this  covenant  and  agree* 
ment  in  the  beginning  of  it," 


168  HISTORY  OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

They  then  "solemnly  covenanted  the  one  with  the 
other,  that,  by  the  help  of  Divine  grace,  they  would  en- 
deavor to  promote  the  union,  peace  and  prosperity  of  this 
court,  now  named  '  The  Synod  of  New  England,'  and  all 
its  Presbyteries  and  churches,  looking  to  the  great  King 
and  Head  of  his  church,  for  his  presence  with,  and  bless- 
ing on,  all  its  departments,  that  they  be  guided  to  such 
measures  as  may  issue  in  the  exaltation  of  Christ  to  his 
throne,  kingly  authority  and  rule  in  these  churches." 

''  In  testimony  of  this  our  covenant,  consent  and  solemn 
engagement,  we  do,  in  the  fear  of  God,  hereunto  subscribe 
our  names,  this  2d  day  of  June,  1775." 

Ministers  —  David  McGregor,  John  Houston,  Daniel 
Mitchell,  Samuel  Perley,  Jolm  Strickland,  Nathaniel  Mer- 
rill, Alexander  McLean,  John  Urquhart,  Nathaniel  Whit- 
taker,  Benjamin  lialch,  Simon  Williams,  Moses  Baldwin, 
Samuel  Taggart. 

Ruling  Elders  —  James  Taggart,  Miles  Ward,  Henry 
Hale,  Ezekiel  Merrill,  John  Moulton,  Hubartous  Mattoon. 

The  moderators  of  the  respective  Presb3^teries  were  now 
appointed,  and  the  Rev.  D.  McGregor  is,  as  Moderator,  to 
open  the  Synod  at  Londonderry  next  year  with  a  sermon. 
Closed  with  prayer. 

We  have,  since  the  opening  of  the  French  church  in 
Boston,  in  1716  (in  fifty-nine  years),  some  development 
and  some  decay. 

The  means  of  grace  were  now,  in  their  varied  congrega- 
tions, not  only  enjoyed  but  extensively  appreciated.  One* 
generation  of  ministers  and  people  liad  passed  awa}^; 
homes  were  not  only  increased,  but  they  were  also  fur- 
nished more  extensively  with  the  comforts  of  life,  and 
their  churches  with  an  increasing  number  of  members; 
while,  having  church  courts,  sessions,  Presbyteries  and  a 
Synod,  an  era  of  prosperity  seemed  now  to  open  before 
them.  It  is  wise,  however,  to  "  mix  trembling  with  mirth  " 
in  view  of  earthly  mutations. 

For  them  the  population  became  too  dense,  while  the 
means  of  subsistence  were  not  always  superabundant. 
Gf  the  three  crying  sins  of  Sodom,  "  pride,  fulness  of  bread 
and  abundance  of  idleness,"  they  were  not  extensively 
guilty.  Hence,  to  better  their  condition,  they  not  only 
emigrated  to  new  portions  of  the  forest  in  New  England, 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  169 

but  to  other  colonies.  In  1760  a  thrifty  company  from 
and  near  Derry,  N,  H.,  removed  to  Truro,  in  Nova  Scotia, 
set  up  Presbyterian  worship  there,  where,  not  being  under 
the  control  of  law,  enacted  by  Congregationalists,  they 
could  hold  and  enjoy,  as  Presbyterians,  their  church  prop- 
erty. In  that  colony  they,  and  those  associating  with 
and  succeeding  them,  have  wielded  an  important  influ- 
ence in  establishing,  maintaining  and  perpetuating  civil 
and  religious  liberty.  Few  spots  on  earth,  if  any,  enjoy 
these  blessings  more  extensively  than  does  that  province. 

This  was  the  First  Presbyterian  church  organized  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada.  >It  has  had  but  three  pastors — the 
Rev.  Daniel  Cock,  from  1772  till  1798,  the  Rev.  John 
AVaddell,  from  1798  till  1836,  and  the  Rev.  William  Mc- 
CuUoch,  D.  D.,  from  1838  until  now. 

It  has  sent  out  five  or  six  branches,  two  of  which  are  in 
the  city  proper.  The  original  church  is  relatively  strong, 
for  the  Doctor  maintains  that  "  the  law  of  the  Lord  is  per- 
fect," both  for  doctrine  and  worship.  The  praises  of  God 
are  not  there  vitiated  by  machinery.  For,  while  he  fully 
believes  the  teaching  of  his  illustrious  father,  the  late  Rev. 
Thomas  McCulloch,  D.  D.,  S.  T.,  P.,  that  "Calvinism  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  Bible,"  he  can  also  say,  with  the  prince 
of  Arminians,  the  Rev.  Adam  Clarke,  D.  D.,  the  Methodist 
Commentator,  "  If  there  was  a  woe  to  them  who  invented 
instruments  of  music,  as  did  David,  under  the  law,  is 
there  no  woe,  no  curse  to  them  who  invent  them  and  in- 
troduce them  with  the  worsHip  of  God  in  the  Christian 
church  ?  I  am  an  old  man  and  an  old  minister,  and  I 
here  declare  that  I  never  knew  them  productive  of  any 
good  in  the  worship  of  God,  and  have  reason  to  believe 
they  were  productive  of  much  evil.  Music,  as  a  science, 
I  esteem  and  admire,  but  instruments  of  music  in  the 
house  of  God  I  abominate  and  abhor." 

During  this  quarter  of  a  century  another  colony  of  these 
peoi)le  settled  at  Cherty  Valley,  Unadilla  and  other  towns 
in  Otsego  county,  New  York,  where  their  moral  worth 
aided  not  a  little  in  elevating  society.  Extensively  forget- 
ting the  scalping-knife  and  tomahawk  a  quiet  tide  of 
prosperity  seemed  to  be  now  carrying  them  onward  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  means  of  grace,  and,  in  common  with 
the  Congregationalists,  then  Trinitarians,  and  Calvinistic 


-i 


170  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Baptists  (almost  the  only  other  religious  persuasions  then 
in  New  England),  the  Presbyterians  were  extensively 
^'  dwelling  safely,"  sitting  "  under  their  vine  and  fig-tree," 
''  but  trouble  came."  Of  our  "  lusts  come  wars  and  fight- 
ings," and  God  now  arose  "  to  shake  terribly  the  earth." 

The  nations  of  Continental  Europe  were  not  all  at  peace, 
and  Great  Britain  commenced  a  series  of  operations  which 
eventually  became  so  oppressive  as  to  cause  her  thirteen 
American  colonies  to  revolt. 

The  atrocious  imprisonment  of  a  Presbyterian  minister, 
the  Rev.  Francis  McKemic,  by  Lord  Cornbury,  in  New 
York,  in  1707-8,  and  making  him  pay  some  seventy 
pounds  for  the  costs  of  his  jjiosecution,  though  declared 
not  guilty,  was  the  "little  cloud  not  bigger  than  a  man's 
hand,"  which  eventually  assembled  the  INIecklenburg, 
North  Carolina,  Convention,  in  May,  1775,  and  caused  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  in  1776,  with  all  their  untold 
results. 

Secondary  and  subordinate  matters,  of  course,  conspired 
to   the   great   issue,   but   this    persecution   occupied    the 
primary  place,  not  simply  claiming  redress,  as  did  taxa- 
tion without  representation,  in  the  Stamp  Act  and  other 
oppressive  forms,  but  crying  for  vengeance  to  the  Judge 
/  of  the  oppressed.     Hence,  says  the  eloquent  Bancroft,  a 
Congregationalist,    "The    first   voice    publicly   raised    in 
America  to  dissolve  all  connection   with  Great  Britain, 
came  not  from  the  Puritans  of  New  England,  or  the  Dutch 
;    of  New  York,  or  the  planters  of  Virginia,  but  from  Scotch- 
I   Irish  Presbyterians.     They  brought   to  America  no  sub- 
\  missive  love  for  England,  and  their  experience  and  their 
\religion  alike  bade  them  meet  oppression  with  prompt  re- 
sistance."    {Hist,  of  U.  S.,  vol.  5,  p.  77.) 

The  next  step,  which  Presbyterians  foresaw,  would  be 
the  setting  up  of  a  bishop  in  each  colony.  The  arrange- 
ments for  this  were  already  being  made.  Hence,  when 
Synod  met  (agreeably  to  its  adjournment)  at  Londonderry, 
N.  H.,  on  September  4th,  1776,  two  months  after  the  birth- 
day of  the  nation,*  immediately  after,  it  was  constituted 
in  the  usual  and  only  Presbyterian  form,  with  prayer  by 

*  The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  adopted  July  4th.  but  signed 
on  August  2d.  1776. 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  171 

the  Moderator,  in  the  name  of  Christ.  We  have  this 
record : 

"  The  question  being  put  whether  any  suspected  to  be 
inimical  to  the  liberties  of  the  independent  States  of 
America,  which  they  are  now  contending  for,  and  refuses 
to  declare  his  attachment  to  the  same,  should  have  a  seat 
in  this  judicature?     Voted,  they  should  not." 

Then  it  was  asked  "  if  tbey  approved  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  lately  published  by  the  American  col- 
onies as  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice,  and  thought  it 
should  be  supported  by  all  ranks  and  degrees  of  persons 
in  these  colonies?  "  The  consideration  of  this  question  (as 
the  hour  of  adjournment  had  arrived)  was  "  suspended  " 
till  the  morrow,  when  we  have  this:  ^^ Whereas  the  Rev. 
John  Morrison,  formerly  a  member  of  this  body,  has  been 
under  ecclesiastical  process,  and  has  eloped  to  the  minis- 
terial army,  and  shamefully  behaved  himself,  therefore  he 
is  deposed  from  the  ministerial  office,  and  likewise  from 
the  privileges  of  a  private  Christian."  He  had  joined  the 
Americi?-n  army  at  Cambridge  in  1775,  but  soon  went  over 
to  the  British,  and  this  tact  now  gave  promptitude  and  ap- 
parent severity  to  their  deliverance.  Among  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians  for  such  conduct  there  could  be  no  forgiveness. 

But  this  was  not  all.  Whether  the  Rev.  John  Houston, 
of  Bedford,  was,  like  Judas,  the  last  to  sa}^  "  Is  it  I  ?  "  or 
not,  he  was  now  not  quite  in  sympathy  in  this  matter  with 
the  Synod,  and  obtained  the  honor  of  their  official  atten- 
tion on  September  5th,  1776.  He  had  come  from  the 
church  and  college  at  Newark,  N.  J.,  in  1754,  and  had  ap- 
peared for  above  twenty  years  to  perform  his  relative  and 
official  duties  well,  but  now  he  falters,  and  this  minute 
of  that  date  is  on  record: 

"As  the  Rev.  John  Houston  is  suspected  as  inimical  to 
the  States  of  America,  and  he  being  interrogated  respecting 
this  matter,  promised  that  he  would  satisfy  the  civil 
authority,  and  in  consequence  of  this,  he  would  satisfy  this 
fSynod;  and  on  this  the  Synod  recommended  to  him  to 
bring  evidence  of  such  satisfaction  to  his  Presbytery,  so  as 
through  them  to  bring  the  same  to  the  Synod  at  its  next 
meeting." 

Failing  to  fulfil  his  promises  and  shew  his  fealty  to  the 
government,  he  was,  in  1778^  suspended  from  a  seat  in 


172  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Synod,  and  having  broken  the  peace  of  his  congregation 
until  his  usefulness  among  them  was  destroyed,  the  Synod 
eventually  dissolved  his  pastoral  relation  to  the  congrega- 
tion of  Bedford. 

The  Scotch-Irish  had  previously  been  loyal  to  the  Home 
Government.  In  the  year  1744  hostilities  between  Eng- 
land and  France  were  renewed.  This  brought  war  be- 
tween the  French  and  the  Indians  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
English  colonies  on  the  other,  which  continued  with  little 
abatement  for  fifteen  years.  (P.)  Until  Canada  was  ceded 
to  Britain  in  February,  1763,  the  fort  and  blockhouse  were 
necessary  in  New  England. 

To  the  defence  of  these  colonies,  in  common  with  others, 
many  Presbyterian  volunteers  (beside  other  services) 
joined  the  noted  expedition  against  Cape  Breton.  "  Dr. 
Matthew  Thornton,  of  Londonderry,  subsequently  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Indej^endence,  served  in 
this  campaign  as  surgeon." 

When  hostilities  were  renewed  in  1756,  the  towns  settled 
by  Presbyterians  were  not  behind  the  others.  As  they 
found  the  New  England  colonies  in  imminent  danger,  so  a 
regiment  was  raised  in  New  Hampshire  to  assist  in  an  at- 
tempt to  destroy  Crown  Point,  and  it  being  distinguished 
for  hardihood  and  adroitness  in  traversing  the  woods,  from 
it  three  companies  of  rangers  were  selected.  These  were 
placed  under  three  captains  from  Londonderry — John 
Stark,  William  Stark  and  Robert  Rogers.  Rogers  was 
soon  promoted  to  be  a  major,  and  John  Stark  afterwards 
became  celebrated  as  a  warrior,  and  arose  to  be  a  brig- 
adier-general in  the  army  of  the  Revolution.  He  was 
with  Lord  Howe,  when  that  general  was  killed  in  storm- 
ing the  French  lines  at  Ticonderoga  in  1758. 

While  faithful  to  Great  Britain  so  long  as  she  was  equi- 
table to  her  colonies,  yet  he  had  for  her  no  surplus  of  affec- 
tion after  the  Boston  massacre.  On  receiving  the  report  of 
the  battle  of  Lexington,  when  he  was  at  work  in  his 
saw-mill,  fired  with  indignation,  he  shouldered  his  musket, 
mounted  his  horse,  in  ten  minutes  left  and  hastened  to 
Cambridge.  He  was  at  the  battles  of  Bunker  Hill  and  of 
Trenton,  and  achieved  a  victory  at  Bennington. 

So  long  as  their  clergymen  considered  loyalty  to  Great 
Britain  a  duty,  so  long  the  Scotch-Irish  w^ere  pacific ;  but 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  173 

after  what  we  have  seen  in  the  Synod,  held  on  September 
4th,  1776,  in  relation  to  Morrison  and  Houston,  and  even 
years  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  made, 
every  idea  of  further  loyalty  to  the  House  of  Hanover  was 
dissipated.  We  now  take  a  few  notices  of  one  man,  il- 
lustrative of  the  character  and  prowess  of  many  others 
of  the  same  race. 

At  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  George  Reid  was 
in  command  of  a  compan}^  of  minute  men,  and  no  sooner 
did  tiie  intelligence  of  that  event  reach  Derry,  than 
leaving  his  wife  and  children,  he  proceeded  with  his  com- 
pany to  Medford.  With  them  he  took  part  in  the  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill,  and  his  first  commission  under  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  is  in  these  words  : 

"The  delegates  of  the  united  colonies  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts  Bay,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  the  counties  of  New- 
castle, Kent  and  Sussex,  on  the  Delaware,  ^laryland,  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina  to  George  Reid,  Esq. : 

"  We,  reposing  especial  trust  and  confidence  in  your 
patriotism,  valor,  conduct  and  fidelity,  do,  by  these 
presents,  constitute  and  appoint  you  to  be  captain  of  a 
comj3any  in  the  fifth  regiment  of  foot,  commanded  by 
Col.  John  Stark.     By  order  of  the  Congress. 

"  John  Hancock,  President. 
(Attest)     "  Chas.  Thompson,  Secretary,  Jan.  1st,  1776." 

In  1777  he  received  the  appointment  of  lieutenant-col- 
onel, and  in  1778  that  of  colonel  of  the  second  New  Hamp- 
shire regiment. 

In  1783  he  was  by  act  of  Congress  appointed  colonel  b}^ 
brevet  of  the  army  of  the  United  States.  Having  been  in 
command  of  New  Hampshire  forces  during  the  entire  war 
of  the  Revolution,  he  was  in. the  battles  of  Bunker  Hill, 
Long  Island,  White  Plains,  Trenton,  Brandywine,  Ger- 
mantown,  Saratoga  and  Stillwater.  He  bore  his  share  in 
the  sufferings  of  Valley  Forge  in  the  winter  of  1777. 

For  above  seven  years,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  hur- 
ried visits,  he  was  absent  from  his  family,  during  which 
time  his  wife,  beside  her  duties  to  their  children,  had  the 
entire  charge  of  his  farm  and  other  domestic   business. 


174  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Some  of  their  letters  breathe  a  constant  reference  to  the 
Almighty,  and  the  confiding  trust  in  him,  in  regard  to 
their  daily  cares,  trials  and  anxieties,  shewn  by  each  of 
them,  forms  a  pleasing  feature  of  tiieir  correspondence. 

From  Medford,  May  30th,  1775,  he  says :  "  I  have  not 
time  to  give  you  an  .account  of  our  late  engagement,  only 
that  God  has  appeared  for  us  in  most  imminent  danger." 

August  10th,  1775,  "  May  God  prosper  and  protect  us. 
I  know  we  have  your  prayers,  with  many  of  God's  people. 
I  commend  you  and  my  dear  children  to  the  Shepherd  of 
Israel." 

On  September  8th,  1776,  she  writes  to  him  at  Ticon- 
deroga:  "I  received  your  letters  of  July  6th,  21st,  also 
August  10th,  and  to  the  former  of  those  two  would  say 
that  God  has  laid  you  under  the  greatest  obligations. 
Every  mercy,  every  escape,  must  be  accounted  for.  May 
w^e  be  prepared  for  the  great  day  of  account."  After 
stating  many  matters  relating  to  the  farm,  stock,  etc.,  she 
concludes:  "All  this  with  your  advice,  not  otherwise. 
May  '  the  good  will  of  him  who  dwelt  in  the  bush  '  rest 
and  abide  with  you." 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  know  whether  a  peo- 
ple in  the  full  possession  of  the  means  of  grace  are  profit- 
ing by  them,  or,  whether  they  are  living  "  according  to  the 
course  of  this  world."  Multitudes  suppose  proper  Pres- 
byterianism  to  be  only  a  matter  of  intellect,  of  mere  doc- 
trines, of  forms  and  customs,  unless  it  runs  into  modern 
"  gush ;  "  but  here  we  find,  amidst  the  din  of  war  and  the 
lowly  labors  of  a  backwoods  New  Hampshire  home,  the 
utterances  of  hearts  ennobled  by  the  indwelling  of  God,  the 
Spirit  vivifying  that  "form  of  doctrine  wdiich  is  according 
to  godliness."  Hundreds  of  other  wives  of  the  same  race 
and  religion,  as  well  as  multitudes  of  others,  among  the 
hills  in  the  granite  State,  and  throughout  New  England, 
under  similar  circumstances  Avould  then  have  put  forth 
just  such  utterances,  and  many  of  them  did  so.  To  them 
also  their  husbands  would,  under  similar  circumstances, 
write:  "Valley  Forge,  Dec.  22d,  1777.  We  are  now 
making  huts  to  winter  in.  I  feel  sympathy  for  you,  but 
cannot  be  with  you  ;  honor  forbids  it.  May  happiness  at- 
tend you  and  the  dear  children." 

As  "godliness  is  profitable,"  this  Christian  woman  was 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  175 

"  diligent  in  business,"  as  well  as  "  fervent  in  spirit,"  and 
addressed  her  husband  while  in  command  at  Alban}^  on 
July  5th,  1782  :  "  I  informed  you  in  ray  last  that  I  had  em- 
ployed Mr.  Neil,  who  was  attending  at  court,  to  represent 
the  true  state  of  the  affair ;  likewise  to  ask  a  continuance 
till  3^ou  were  acquainted  with  the  matter.  The  judge  in- 
formed me,  through  Mr.  Neil,  that  I  need  give  myself  no 
uneasiness  about  the  matter,  for  it  should  be  continued  till 
your  return,  if  that  should  he  Jive  and  twenty  years." 

Such  are  some  items,  selected  almost  at  random,  con- 
cerning domestic  life  and  ])ublic  dut}'  among  Presbyteri- 
ans in  New  England  in  those  years  of  trial.  Yet  they 
form  but  a  small  part  of  illustrations  of  endurance  sup- 
ported by  principle,  which  might  be  presented. 

Before  passing  the  belligerent  jjart  of  our  history,  as  if 
all  that  was  done  for  independence  by  Presbyterians  in 
New  England,  was  done  only  by  those  under  the  original 
Presbytery  of  Londonderry,  or  the  Synod  of  New  England 
and  its  subordinate  Presb^^teries :  as  this  was  not  the 
case,  I  must  recall  the  Rev.  John  Murray  of  Boothbay. 
He  appears  to  have  largely  imitated  the  Apostle  Peter  in 
his  impulsive  rashness,  as  well  as  in  his  earnest  piety. 

"  In  1775  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  Provincial  Congress 
w^hich  met  in  \A^aterto\vn."  Maine  Historical  Society  Col- 
lections, vol.  6,  p.  160.  His  Presbytery  met  (as  we  have 
seen)  on  July  the  4th,  at  New  Market;  again  October  7th, 
1776,  at  Falmouth  ;  at  Pownalboro,  June  11th,  1777,  and 
at  Boothbay,  October  8th,  1777. 

Thus,  busy  ecclesiastically,  apparently  at  the  very  verge 
of  civilization,  it  might  be  supposed,  that,  of  him,  the 
government,  army  and  nav}^  of  Great  Britain  would  know 
but  little,  and  that  his  influences  in  the  rebellion  would 
be  so  small  as  to  appear  unworthy  of  notice,  among  the 
doings  of  the  231,791  American  soldiers  who  were  engaged 
in  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  But  it  was  otherwise.  With 
a  mind  of  more  than  ordinary  power,  and  an  utterance 
(in  the  judgment  of  Benjamin  Franklin)  not  much  inferior 
to  that  of  Whitefield,  he  was  known  from  Boothbay  to 
Boston,  and  from  Boston  to  London  as  "  a  pestilent  fellow 
and  a  mover  of  sedition  "  against  the  throne  of  England. 

Hence,  at  the  above  date,  it  was  declared  in  Presbytery, 
that  Mr.  Murray  was  "  peculiarly  exposed  by  the  common 


176  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

enemies  of  the  United  States,"  and  for  safety  he  was  then 
invited  to  remove  to  Newburyport.  I  have  stated  that  he 
was  the  cause  and  occasion  of  trouble  in  his  region,  and 
t'.iis  is  proved  by  the  sequel. 

He  was  not  only  active  on  the  land,  but  also  once  ven- 
t'lred  on  the  sea.  Sir  Georiie  Collier  came  to  the  coast  of 
T  Liine  in  1777,  and  his  sailors  thought  it  lawful  to  pilfer 
iVoin  the  Whigs,  patriots  or  rebels.  In  this  there  was  dan- 
ger as  well  as  unpleasantness  to  those  on  shore,  and  a  re- 
monstrance must  l)e  made.  To  this  occasion  Murray  was 
(Mjual.  Putting  on  a  white  wig,  gown  and  bands,  he  went 
onboard  and  "  talked  "  against  such  improprieties.  (lb.) 
Under  the  disguise  of  his  man-millinery  he  was  unknown 
and  escaped  safely  to  shore,  witli  many  points  of  informa- 
tion not  previously  possessed.  When  this  came  to  be 
known  it  brought  down  threatening,  and  to  secure  ven- 
geance, a  premium  was  set  upon  him. 

"  Hence,  at  Pownalboro,  on  October  21st,  1777,  Colonel 
Ileid  reported  to  the  Presbytery,  that  the  town  of  Booth- 
bay  had  held  a  public  meeting  in  consequence  of  the 
select  men  being  served  with  a  copy  of  our  last,  and  see- 
ing that  the  situation  of  Mr.  Murray's  dwelling — the  par- 
ticular vengeance  threatened  by  the  common  enemy 
against  him,  and  the  large  reward  of  five  hundred  pounds 
sterling  (£500)  offered  by  them  to  any  person  that  shall 
deliver  him  up — render  his  longer  residence  in  Boothbay 
at  this  juncture  exceedingly  dangerous,  and  that  they  are 
therefore  willing  that,  for  his  own  safety,  he  should  re- 
move for  a  few  days  to  any  secure  place,  excepting  New- 
buryport (whither  they  would  consent  to  his  removing 
upon  no  terms  whatever.^  and  that  they  might  the  more 
apparent  make  their  displeasure  at  the  application  from 
said  Ncwbui-yport,  they  had  not  sent  any  answer  in  writ- 
ing, and  had  forbidden  the  clerk  to  record  any  minute  of 
said  meeting." 

The  Presbytery,  taking  the  report  into  serious  considera- 
tion, and  having  reasoned  on  the  subject,  judged  that  the 
people  of  Boothba}^,  after  consenting  to  his  removal,  acted 
very  indiscreetly  in  not  leaving  to  this  judicature  the 
choice  of  his  retreat,  as  they  can  best  judge  where  his  ser- 
vices would  have  been  of  most  use  to  the  cause  of  Christ. 

"And   although  this   Presbytery  are   unanimously  of 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  177 

opinion,  that  Mr.  Murraj^'s  safety  requires  his  speedy  re- 
moval from  that  place  for  the  present,  his  clanger  being  so 
imminent,  yet,  as  the  church  at  Newburyport  requested  him 
to  be  sent  there,  onh"  for  so  long  as  his  present  charge,  when 
asked,  should  consent  to ;  and,  since  they  have  not  agreed 
upon  any  time  at  all,  this  Presbytery  cannot  now  order  his 
sojourning  there  for  an}'  term  agreeably  to  their  request." 

"  Yet,  that  this  Presb3'tery  ma}^  not  appear  to  counte- 
nance any  step  that  wears  the  aspect  of  untenderness  for 
Mr.  Murray's  safety,  tliey  think  it  their  duty  to  advise  him 
seasonably  to  take  any  precaution  of  prudence  to  prevent 
his  falling  into  the  hands  of  our  foes,  and  therefore  to  re- 
move himself  and  his  family  to  any  place  of  retreat  he 
shall  think  proper,  without  any  exception,  whenever  he 
apprehends  himself  and  them  in  such  danger  as  requires 
it,  and  there  to  continue  until  he  shall  judge  it  safe  to 
return,  or  until  this  Presbytery  shall  take  further  order 
concerning  him.  And  he  is  hereby  released  from  all 
obligations  to  the  churcli  at  Boothbay,  that  are  any  way 
contrary  to  the  purport  of  this  result." 

"At  Topsham,  on  June  7th,  1778,  it  was  resolved,  that 
Mr.  Murray  have  his  license  continued  to .  go  where  he 
pleases  for  safety." 

"  New  ^larket,  July  1st,  1779.  A  letter  from  the  session 
of  Boothba}"  church  was  brought  in  and  read,  purporting 
their  utter  dissent  from  the  removal  requested,  but,  with- 
out informing  the  Presbyter}^  of  a  descent  of  a  British 
armament  made  in  ^heir  neighborhood,  which  has  so 
alarmed  and  endangered  that  town,  that  they  could  not 
attend  to  this  meeting." 

"  July  2d.  Mr.  Murray  represented  the  necessity  of  his 
meeting  the  committee  of  safety  of  New  Hampshire  at 
Exeter'^this  afternoon,  to  transact  w4th  them  some  busi- 
ness relating  to  the  defence  of  the  Eastward  at  this  crisis, 
and  l)egged  leave  to  withdraw.     Granted." 

"With  the  splendid  bounty  of  £500  sterling  on  his 
head,'""  valued  at  the  same  price  with  John  Hancock  and 

*  So  great  was  the  influence  of  "  the  Kev.  David  Caldwell,  D.  D.,  re- 
siding but  a  few  miles  from  Guilford  Court-House,  North  Carolina,  that 
not  only  was  his  house  plundered,  his  library  and  papers  burned,  but 
also  a  purse  of  £200  was  set  by  Lord  Cornwallis  on  his  head,  to  any 
one  who  would  bring  him  in  a  prisoner."  {Chambers.) 
12 


178  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Samuel  Adams,  this  outlaw,  while  under  Divine  Provi- 
dence he  kept  himself  safe  from  shot  and  shell,  wandered 
for  above  two  years,  helpino;  committees  of  safety  and 
stirring  up  the  people  to  continue  unremitting  resistance 
to  their  foes,  and  on  "  October  7th,  1779,  he  informed  his 
Presbytery,  then  in  session  at  Newburyport,  that  the  dan- 
gered  situation  of  the  people  at  Boothbay  is  such  as  to 
render  it  impracticable  for  them  to  attend  at  this  meeting." 
Such  was  the  spirit  which  he  had  instrumentally  diffused 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  coast  of  Maine.  In  his 
Presbytery  there  were  no  John  Morrisons  nor  John  Hous- 
tons.  None  among  his  acquaintance  who  would  betray 
him  for  £500  sterling. 

When  we  consider  the  power  and  influence  of  Hancock, 
the  richest  merchant  in  New  England,  and  of  Samuel 
Adams,  the  far-seeing  and  reliable  statesman,  "possibly 
the  most  powerful  and  sincere  of  all  the  advocates  of  in- 
dependence, to  whom  Lee,  Jeflerson  and  John  Adams 
ever  turned  with  singular  respect "  {Eug.  Laivrence),  and 
find  this  Scotch-Irish  preacher,  in  the  woods  of  Maine, 
such  a  potent  enemy  to  the  king,  lords  and  parliament  of 
Great  Britain,  that  his  person  is  tinancially  worth  as  much 
as  either  of  theirs,  in  subduing  the  rebellion,  we  find  the 
position  of  Bancroft  verified,  he  "  brought  to  America  no 
submissive  love  for  England,  and  his  religion  bade  him 
meet  oppression  with  prompt  resistance." 

The  "  resistance  "  of  the  race  in  America  was  prompted 
more  by  their  religion  than  by  their  experience,  or  even 
the  experience  of  their  fathers.  Their  "  form  of  sound 
words,"  which  was  the  key-note  from  Maine  to  Georgia 
among  Congregationalists,  Calvinist  Baptists  and  Presby- 
terians (and  the  Revolution  had  in  its  aid  a  very  small 
fragmentary  shewing  among  the  other  sects,  excepting  it 
may  have  been  the  Low  Church  Episcopalians  who  were 
Calvinists),  was  the  New  England  Primer.  Beside  this, 
their  creed ;  the  Scotch-Irish  throughout  the  revolted 
colonies,  had  their  religion  animated  and  made  strong,  by 

"Those  strains  that  once  did  sweet  in  Zion  glide  " — {Burns) 

the  Scotch  version  of  the  Psalms.  They  considered  those 
good  to  "sing,"  and  if  they  were  not  good  "to  whistle  or 
to  play,"  they  found  them  as  Cromwell  did  in  his  day, 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  179 

**good  for  fighting."  Hence,  those  who  sung  them  were, 
at  times,  "treated  with  special  cruelty  and  revenge." 
Says  Kendal,  in  his  unfinished  history  of  General  Jack- 
son, "  The  British  oflicer  who  marched  his  troops  into  the 
settlement  of  Waxhaw,  South  Carolina,  burned  the  Pres- 
byterian church  and  the  house  of  the  preacher,  and  every 
Bible  he  could  lay  his  hands  on  containing  the  Scotch 
translation  of  the  Psalms  of  David."  {Christian  /ms.,  vol.  4, 
p.  217.) 

The  Bible,  with  these  Psalms,  was  their  chosen  com- 
panion when  they  had  leisure  or  rest  from  their  daily  du- 
ties in  the  army.  Hence  when  Captain  David  McCleary 
fell  at  Bennington  (on  August  16th,  1777)  in  his  pocket 
was  found  an  Edinburgh  edition  of  the  Bible,  with  which 
was  bound  up  "  the  Scotch  translation  of  the  Psalms." 

This  volume  and  the  bullet  by  which  he  was  killed  were 
kept  as  heirlooms  in  the  family  for  above  seventy  years. 

When  I  saw  them  the  days  of  the  war,  of  the  psalms, 
and  of  the  catechism  (I  would  not  like  to  say  also  the  days 
of  the  Bible)  were  past — the  generations  were  gone  who 
viewed  them  from  time  to  time  with  a  melancholy  yet  pa- 
triotic interest;  and  they  were  then  in  transitu  in  the 
hands  of  the  minister  of  Londonderry,  to  be  conveyed  to 
and  deposited  among  the  relics  and  curiosities  collected  in 
the  State  museum  in  Concord. 

Silent  leges  inter  arma,  and  from  fields  of  carnage,  scenes 
of  domestic  alarm,  bereavement  and  sorrow,  we  now  re- 
turn to  the  ecclesiastical  arena,  and  recommence  by  no- 
ticing briefly  the  subsequent  career  of  Mr,  Murray. 

By  his  Presbytery,  owing  to  his  imminent  danger  there, 
he  was  on  October  21st,  1777,  relieved  of  his  pastoral 
charge,  his  sorrowing  people  at  Boothbay,  and  after  nearly 
three  busy  years  of  aiding  State  and  other  committees  of 
safety,  and  in  other  ways  (according  to  his  ability  and  op- 
portunity) assisting  those  engaged  in  the  revolutionary- 
struggle,  he  was  by  his  Presbytery,  on  June  14th,  1780, 
translated  to  Xewburyport,  where  he  was  finally  "settled  as 
pastor  on  June  4th,  1781,  a  few  strenuously  opposing  his 
settlement." 

We  have  already  noticed  his  power  as  a  preacher. 
"  Few  ever  drew  larger  audiences,  or  held  them  in  more 
fixed  attention  through  discourses,  which  were  ordinarily 


180  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

an  hour  and  often  two  hours  in  length.    "  It  is  related  that 

during  the  war  in  a  crisis  in  public  affairs,  Newburj^port 
was  called  upon  to  furnish  a  full  company  for  actual  ser- 
vice. But  owing  to  discouragement  arising  from  a  depre- 
ciated currency  and  the  state  of  the  army,  the  officers  labored 
three  days  in  vain.  On  the  fourth  it  was  moved  that  Mr. 
Murray  be  invited  to  address  the  regiment  then  under  arms. 
Having  accepted  the  invitation,  he  was  escorted  to  the 
parade,  and  by  the  regiment  to  the  church.  There  he  pro- 
nounced an  address  so  spirited  and  animating,  that  the 
audience  were  wrapt  in  attention,  and  tears  fell  from 
man}^  eyes.  Soon  after  the  assembly  was  dismissed  a 
member  came  forward  to  take  the  command,  and  in  two 
hours  the  company  was  filled.  When  he  preached  his 
thanksgiving  sermon  of  two  hours'  length  for  the  peace, 
a  gentleman  from  another  society,  being  meanwhile 
under  great  concern  of  mind  for  a  spoiling  dinner,  fre- 
quently and  resolutely  took  his  hat  to  leave.  But  Mr. 
Murra3''s  eloquence  as  often  arrested  him,  till  at  last  he 
whispered,  "  Let  the  dinner  go  ;  I  must  hear  him  out." 

He  is  said  to  have  been  slightly  pompous,  but  dignified  in 
presence,  courteous,  sincerely  kind,  and  by  his  people  en- 
thusiastically beloved.  In  various  labors  he  was  abundant, 
and  under  the  divine  favor  was  extensively  successful  in 
the  ministry.  During  his  sojourn  in  Philadelphia  of  a 
few  months  only,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Green  mentions  that  more 
were  added  to  the  church  than  there  were  during  the 
whole  ministry  of  the  Rev.  Gilbert  Tennant.  When  he 
went  to  Boothbay,  there  was  no  organized  church,  and  a 
general  inattention  to  religion.  Under  his  ministry  a 
powerful  awakening  commenced,  which  continued  through 
two  years  and  extended  to  adjoining  towns,  his  own 
lodgings  being  often  crowded  with  enquirers,  even  till 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning.  His  private  diary  of  this 
period  indicates  deep  piety  and  unusual  ministerial  faith- 
fulness. As  it  may  be  useful  to  others,  I  give  portions  of 
it  from  Greenleafs  Ecclesiastical  Sketches: 

"  Mr.  Murray's  plan  of  visiting  as  noted  in  his  diary  is 
worthy  of  attention.  First,  salute  the  house.  Second, 
compare  the  list  with  the  family  ;  mark  them  who  can 
read,  catechisables,  covenanters,  church  members.  Third, 
address,   1st,  children   to   engage  in   early   religion;   2d, 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  181 

young  ones  to  reading,  secret  prayer,  the  Sabbath,  good 
company,  good  hours,  good  tongues,  conversations.  Fourth, 
address  parents — 1st,  about  their  spiritual  state  ;  2d,  secret 
devotion;  3d,  family  worship,  government,  catechising; 
4th,  Sabbath,  etc.  If  clnirch  members,  see  what  profit; 
if  in  error  or  vice,  reclaim ;  if  in  divisions,  heal ;  if  poor, 
help.    Lastly^  exhortation  to  all,  pray," 

"  To  his  prayerfulness,  meekness,  good- will  and  patient 
endurance  of  injuries  in  his  later  years,  as  well  as  his 
faithfulness  in  his  calling,  biographers  bear  ample  testi- 
mony (Ferwi.)." 

"As  his  prominent  wrong-doing  was  in  early  life,  Mr. 
Parsons  took  special  pains  to  write  to  England  about  him, 
and  the  result  was  a  decided  conviction,  that  the  faults 
committed  connected  with  his  own  humble  acknowledg- 
ment should  not  debar  him  from  Christian  charity."  (i6.) 
He  was  active  in  promoting  religion  beyond  his  own  con- 
gregation. He  was  the  guiding  spirit  and  chief  supporter 
of  a  society  which  aided  many  young  men  to  enter  the 
ministry. 

He  had  unquestionably  his  faults.  His  great  fault, 
forging  signatures  to  his  credentials,  and  persisting  in  this 
through  life,  rather  than  disgrace  his  friends  in  Scotland, 
was  an  heinous  sin.  This  he  committed  at  eighteen. 
From  twenty-three  his  life  was  public  and  unimpeached — 
a  life  of  great  devotedness,  and  in  what  extenuating  pen- 
itence passed,  a  letter  will  show.  In  1774  he  writes: 
"  The  daily  views  I  have  had  of  the  multiplied  enormities 
it  occasioned  me,  all  of  which,  with  the  unhappy  conse- 
quences to  the  church  of  Christ,  have  been  continually  be- 
fore my  eyes — have  made  me  wish  my  name  blotted  out 
of  remembrance  by  all  mankind,  and  nven  regret  the  day 
of  my  birth  times  without  number.  The  Searcher  of 
all  hearts  knows  my  agonies  of  mind  on  every  review,  and 
that  no  restoration  to  the  favor  of  men  can  ever  give  me 
ease ;  and  that  but  for  the  application  of  Gilead's  heavenly 
balm,  I  had  perished  of  my  wounds  years  ago  not  a  few. 
I  find  my  comfort  in  my  obscurity — there  I  hope  to  find 
my  God;  and  there  I  see  less  'danger  of  being  a  stumbling- 
block  in  Zion,  the  very  idea  of  which  to  me  is  worse  than 
death.  I  have  not  a  wish  to  be  drawn  from  my  retire- 
ment (Boothbay);  there  will  I  remain  in  secret  places, 


182  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

looking  to  him  whom  I  pierced,  and  mourning  as  for  an 
only  son,  and  striving  to  wear  out  the  remainder  of  my 
cumbrous  life  in  the  best  endeavors  I  can  in  liis  service,"  etc. 

"  No  farther  seek  liis  merits  to  disclose, 

Nor  draw  his  frailties  from  their  dread  abode; 
There  they  alike  in  trembling  hope  repose, 
The  bosom  of  his  Father  and  his  God." 

He  died  March  13th,  1793.  He  left  a  widow,  Susan,  the 
eldest  daughter  of  General  Lithgow,  of  Phippsburgli,  and 
five  chikh-en,  all  minors,  and  as  he  had  devised  of  his 
substance  for  a  burse  to  aid  pious  young  men  in  entering 
the  ministry,  she,  six  months  afterward,  petitioned  his 
Presbytery,  to  whom  it  was  entrusted,  to  relinquish  their 
claims  to  the  substance  thus  devised.  This,  from  the 
facts  set  forth  in  her  petition,  they  doubtless  did — other- 
wise they  might  have  been  constructively  charged  with 
devouring  a  "  widow's  house." 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  183 


CHAPTER  VII. 

1768-1793 — A  year  of  mark — Slavery  abolished  in  the  colony — Stone 
walls — Kiffy  carried  the  foot-stove  to  church  for  "  Missa  " — "Attucks" 
— Tiie  Synod  and  Presbyteries — Houston  guilty  of  a  breach  of  promise 
— Suspended — Restored — A  case  of  bigamy — Dead,  yet  alive — Peter- 
boro  congregation  requested  a  dismission — Granted — The  Associate 
Churcii — Brass  instead  of  golden  shields — The  camp — Reduced  to 
straits  as  for  subsistence — Artisans — Ministers  who  are  not  parish  offi- 
cials— Voluntary  support — The  extravagant  price  of  food,  etc.,  a 
recommendation — Commutative  justice — Divine  providences  traced  in 
their  troubles — Causes — Hoary — Assassination — Money  can  be  made — 
John  Lowe — John  Adams  and  the  Sabbath — The  Centennial  commis- 
sion— Claverhouse — Vast  blessings — An  address — A  letter  to  Grafton 
Presbytery — Of  it  but  little  is  known — Members  of  it — Galvanized — 
Effort  to  unite  with  it — Unavailing — Records  of  Synod  defective — 
Houston  restored — Families  confined  to  their  own  parishes  in  Derry 
east  and  west  by  the  civil  court — Pelham  not  by  a  town  tax — Advice 
asked — Cases  of  appeal — Rev.  Messrs.  Annan  ex-officio — Williams  pro- 
tests— Revision — Williams'  reasons — Synod  concentrating  power — To 
avoid  John  Murray — Williams  declared  guilty  and  suspended  by 
Synod — These  blessed  effects — Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York — 
Presbytery  on  Connecticut  river — An  act  of  Presbytery  over-ruled — 
Past  noon-day  and  ebbing — Causes — A  burse  wanted — War  times — 
Poverty — Gastric  juice — Violent  tempers — The  want  of  the  stated  or- 
dinances— Congregations  came  to  Presbyterianism — Confused  way — 
So  mild — The  church  of  the  town,  if  not  of  the  Lord — The  war  produced 
deleterious  effects — Paucity  of  ideas — The  power — Took  its  rise  in 
New  England — The  sword — To  conform  to  the  local  system — The 
marriage  relations — Mrs.  Colonel  Reid — Mental  instability — Logic — 
Intruders — Nor  seen  a  drunken  man — The  air  of  enthusiasm^— Theo- 
logical thought  imported — Of  one  man — Souls  annihilated — The  soul 
of  Jesus  Christ  the  first  thing  made — By  it  God  made  all  things  else 
— Fourteen  particulars — The  outgoings  of  the  soul  of  the  doctor — 
David  turned  into  a  Christian — Coleman — The  whale  with  Jonah — 
"A  felt  want" — Tiie  enjoyment  of  it — A  humble  remonstrance — 
"  Ichabod  " — No  union  was  effected — Last  meeting  of  Synod  Sep- 
tember 12th,  1782 — They  submitted — Presbytery  of  Salem — Decay — 
Places  where  it  for  a  time  existed — This  new  thing — The  worship — 
The  loaves  and  fishes  were  small— The  collapse. 

1770  was  a  year  of  mark  in   Massachusetts.     By  an 
amendment  of  her  constitution,  slaves  were  made  free  in 


184  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  colony.  Although  having  a  commercial  value,*  they 
had  measurably  Deen  a  burden  to  many  owners,  from  the 
day  on  which  Noddle  (after  whom  Noddle's  Island,  now 
East  Boston,  was  called)  had  introduced  the  first  one,  and 
on  obtaining  freedom,  they  left  few,  if  any,  monuments  in 
proof  of  the  servile  system,  excepting  those  ranges  of  stone 
walls,  especially  old  line  fences,  which  may  yet  be  occa- 
sionally found,  all  but  buried,  by  the  force  of  gravitation 
constantly  applied  for  above  a  century.  In  those  winter 
days,  when  steam-pipes  and  furnaces  were  unknown  for 
the  distribution  of  heat  in  churches,  "  Kiffy,  or  "Pete,"  or 
by  whatever  other  name  known,  found  it  to  be  his  duty 
to  carry  the  foot-stove  and  hot  brick  for  "  Marm,"  or 
*'  Missa,"  and  deposit  it  in  position  in  her  pew,  and  to  take 
it  home  when  it  had  performed  its  office. 

How  far  "  necessity  "  was  in  this  case  "  the  mother  of 
invention  "  in  bringing  in  the  general  application  of  large 
stoves  for  heating  churches,  I  know  not,  but  assuredly  it 
is  well  that  slavery  has  gone.  In  owning  persons  of  color, 
ministers,  as  well  as  others,  participated.  They  often,  if 
not  generally,  had  each  one  or  more  slaves.f  Presbyte- 
rians as  well  as  others  took  "  stock  "  in  the  institution. 
John  Little,  the  patron  of  Presbyterianism  in  Boston,  dis- 
posed of  one  of  his  by  will,  while  a  man  belonging  to  the 
Rev.  John  Moorehead  obtained  his  freedom,  went  to 
Britain  and  died  there.  The  letters  from  him  in  England 
were  matters  of  pleasure  to  the  Moorehead  family  for  many 
years.  His  education,  common  and  religious,  had  not 
been  neglected  in  the  parsonage.  Rising  from  individual 
bondage  to  personal  freedom,  from  being  things  to  be 
men,  they  aided  in  creating  a  desire  for  civil  liberty  in 
the  colony.  Their  release  from  bondage  did  not  hinder 
the  diffusion  of  this  species  of  sentimentality  among  the 
"  spinners  "  and  their  admirers.  The  "  sons  "  and  "  daugh- 
ters of  liberty  "  became  in  a  few  years  a  force  of  increas- 
ingly influential  proportions  in  the  colony,  while  "Attucks" 
was  among  the  first  five  whose  blood  (from  under  his  black 
skin)  precipitated  the  mortal  combat  of  the  Revolution. 

*  In  1760  A.  Johonnett's  negro  man  was  valued  at  £53  6s.  Sd.,  and  a 
negro  woman  at  £16. 

t  In  1754  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards  and  wife  wanted  to  buy  the 
Bev.  Mr.  Bellamy's  negro  woman.     ( W.,  p.  639.) 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  185 

As,  at  that  period,  the  master  was  not  too  haughty  to 
labor  at  the  same  work  with  his  slave,  so  the  labor  on  the 
farm  became  more  productive,  as  the  proceeds  were  after- 
wards required  only  to  support  freemen. 

Laws  regulating  the  return  of  slaves  were  no  longer  re- 
quired, and  in  several  other  ways  the  New  England  colo- 
nies took  a  prosperous  "  new  departure "  after  1770, 
although  slavery -did  not  disappear  until  1774. 

We  have  previously  noticed  a  few  of  the  incidents  con- 
nected with  the  period,  which  illustrate  character  both  in 
the  people  and  the  ministry  during  the  seven  years'  war ; 
and  we  now  return  to  matters  ecclesiastical — to  the  Synod 
and  to  the  Presbyteries. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Synod  of  New  England  in 
1777  was  held  in  Londonderry  on  September  3d.  Among 
other  matters  they  examined  the  regular  official  standing 
of  John  Houston  as  a  clergvman.  He  professed  to  vSynod 
that  he  had,  as  directed,  satisfied  the  legal  authorities  of 
his  town  as  to  his  loyalty  to  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, and  that  he  had  made  due  report,  as  he  was  directed, 
to  his  Presbytery. 

But  their  minute  reads,  "  Rev.  Mr.  Houston  being  in- 
terrogated respecting  the  minute  in  his  case  in  our  last 
meeting,  and  it  ap])earing  that  he  has  been  guilty  of  a 
breach  of  promise  and  also  of  contempt  to  the  Synod,  they 
do  therefore  deem  him  unworthy  of  a  seat  in  this  body, 
till  he  shall  make  satisfaction  to  the  Synod  for  the  same, 
and  do  now  again  recommend  it  to  him,  to  proceed  in  the 
manner  before  directed,  to  bring  the  satisfaction  desired 
at  our  next  sitting,  either  to  his  Presbytery  or  immediately 
to  the  Synod."  This  he  was  reluctant  to  do  until  thoy 
suspended  him,  when  he  made  confession,  promised  obedi- 
ence and  was  restored  to  full  official  standing. 

To  this  confession  of  wrong-doing  towards  the  govern- 
ment, he  was  rather  hastened  by  his  people,  for  through 
their  committee  they  made  "  application  to  the  Synod  lor 
advice  respecting  the  affair  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Houston  and 
that  congregation,"  and  the  case  was  remitted  to  "  the 
Presbytery  to  hear  and  judge  in  the  affiiir." 

He  continued  for  several  years  to  be  the  pastor  of  Bed- 
ford congregation,  and  was  dismissed  in  good  standing  by 
the  Presbytery  of  Salem^  on  June  1st,  1785. 


186  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

A  matter  of  reference  from  the  session  of  Nottingham, 
brought  before  Synod,  touching  the  purity  of  a  member, 
was  settled  in  this  way :  "  The  Synod  conclude  that  the 
session  committed  an  error  in  judgment,  and  do  restore 
Elder  Emerson  to  his  former  good  standing." 

By  a  case  of  bigamy  brought  before  them,  the  Synod 
appear  to  liave  been  puzzled,  and  gave  rather  an  accom- 
modating deliverance,  somewhat  different  from  the  record 
of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.     It  runs  thus  : 

"  This  Synod  are  of  opinion,  considering  his  first  wife 
dead  in  law  to  him,  though  yet  alive,  she  having  married 
another  man,  he  may  now  lawfully  live  with  the  woman 
to  whom  he  is  now  married,  and  upon  a  proper  public 
manifestation  of  repentance  he  may  have  the  privileges  of 
the  church." 

"  Moreover,  considering  the  heinousness  of  this  crime, 
we  judge  it  proper  his  confession  be  repeatedly  published, 
he  being  jiresent  in  the  congregation  where  he  resides,  and 
that  he  be  not  restored  till  after  the  next  session  of  this 
Synod."  To  them,  at  their  annual  meetings,  references 
and  appeals  were  frequently  made,  and  at  times  requests 
for  separation  were  presented. 

Thus  at  Londonderry,  on  October  1st,  1778,  the  church 
and  congregation  of  Peterboro  presented  a  petition,  re- 
questing a  "  dismission  and  a  recommendation  to  the 
(Associate,  styled  by  them  the)  reverend  Seceding  Presby- 
tery of  New  York."  This  denomination,  "  Seceders,"  w^e 
have  previously  seen  was  brought  into  existence  by  the 
Congregational"  element  in  a  church  in  New  York  city,  in 
which  the  rulers  of  it  were  overruled  by  a  faction  intent 
on  changing  the  psalmody  of  the  congregation.  In  1774 
the  Rev.  Moses  Baldwin  agitated  the  matter  successfully 
for  the  use  of  "the  psalms  imitated  to  the  ignoring  and  the 
rejecting  of  the  Presbyterian  version,  and  feeling  the  ef- 
fects and  seeing  the  consequences  (as  they  had  now  become 
general  through  the  Synod  of  New  England),  tliis  congre- 
gation thought  proper  to  "ask  for  the  old  paths,"  and  to 
"  walk  in  the  good  way,"  as  subservient  to  the  "  rest  of 
their  souls."  This  the '^.^-soc/a^e  Church  of  Scotland  had 
done.  For  being  Calvinists,  they  could  say  with  Calvin, 
nobody  has  yet  "appeared  who  could  prove  that  we  have 
appointed  any  new  thing  contrary  to  His  word.     They 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  187 

considered  that  the  law  of  the  Lord,  of  which  the  Psalms  for 
their  appointed  use  form  a  part,  is  perfect. 

Consequently  the  Scotch-Irish  of  Peterboro,  not  yet 
ready,  through  poetical  solutions,  the  imitations,  to  dilute 
and  dissolve  their  doctrine,  but  especially  their  worship, 
desired  an  union  with  those  who  (under  some  disadvan- 
tao^es)  were  "  contending  more  closely  for  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints." 

In  doing  this,  they  acted  orderly,  respectfully,  and  yet 
firmly,  and  to  this  court  their  application  was  perplexing. 
"They  were  hopeful  that  this  their  Synod  would  exten- 
sively, if  not  eventually,  embrace  under  its  broad  name  all 
Presbyterians  in  New  England."  Still  they  dismissed  them 
in  peace,  saying,  "Taking  the  case  into  solenm  considera- 
tion, and  observing  the  fair  prospect  of  having  the  gospel 
regularly  settled  among  them,  do  hereby  dismiss  and 
recommend  them  in  good  standing  with  this  body  to  that 
Presbytery."     This  was  lionorable.* 

The  years  of  the  revolutionary  struggle  have  been  well 
called  "  the  times  that  tried  men's  souls."  A  large  part 
of  the  productive  industry  of  the  provinces  was  drawn  off 
to  the  camp.  The  tillage  had  to  be  extensively  conducted 
by  the  mothers,  the  youth  and  the  children.  Where  any 
surplus  could  be  produced,  they  were  far  from  good 
markets,  and,  as  a  consequence,  those  who  did  not  own 
soil,  and  had  but  skill  and  industry  on  which  to  depend 
for  their  subsistence  and  the  support  of  their  households, 
were  measurably  reduced  to  straits.  They  did  not  often 
partake  of  "dainties."  While  this  was  trying  to  me- ^ 
chanics,  it  fell  with  equal  power  on  not  a  few  of  the  min- 
isters, especially  the  Presbyterian  ones,  who  were  in  many 
towns  not  the  first  nor  parish  officials.  For  them  no  salary 
could  be  collected  by  the  town  constable.  They  must  de- 
pend on  the  voluntary  support  of  their  congregations  and 
in  all  the  afflictions  of  their  people  be  afflicted. 

Hence  on  October  1st,  1778,  after  dismissing  the  congre- 
gation of  Peterboro  and  instructing  their  clerk  to  obtain 
from  the  executors  of  the  late  Rev.  David  McGregor  some 
papers  belonging  to  the  Synod,  on  their  records  they  enter 
the  following  minute: 

*  Being  thus  dismissed  on  Oct.  1, 1778.  in  the  same  month,  Mr.  David 
Annan  was  called  and  he  was  ordained  in  Wallkill,  New  York,  by  the 
Associate  Presbytery,  "  with  Peterboro  for  his  destination." 


188  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

"  The  Rev.  John  Strickland,  intimating  that  he  cannot 
subsist  his  family  through  the  extravagant  price  of  the 
necessaries  of  life — the  smallness  of  his  salary,  and  the 
neglect  of  the  people  to  pay  up  his  arrears — the  Synod  be- 
ing sensible  that  this  is  the  case,  do  recommend  it  to  the 
society  of  Nottingham  to  pay  up  his  arrears  and  make 
such  addition  to  his  salary  as  shall  compensate  for  the 
rise  of  the  j^rice  of  the  necessaries  of  life  for  the  year  past, 
as  well  as  for  the  time  to  come;  and  in  case  they  shall  not 
do  this,  we  think  it  Mr.  Strickland's  dut}^  to  preach  occa- 
sionally to  vacancies  as  he  may  have  opportunity,  as  a 
means  of  adding  to  his  support,  he  still  continuing  his  re- 
lation and  preaching  to  them  except  as  above."  This  was 
during  the  war. 

"  The  Synod,  taking  into  consideration  the  distressing 
case  of  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  in  general,  and  those  of 
this  Synod  in  particular,  on  account  of  the  smallness  of 
their  salaries,  compared  with  the  exorbitant  prices  of  the 
necessaries  of  life,  whereby  many  of  them  are  reduced  to 
the  greatest  straits  and  indigence,  therefore  the  Synod  do 
recommend  it  to  the  several  congregations  under  its  care 
to  exert  themselves  to  make  a  proper  compensation  to 
their  ministers  and  supplies,  according  to  the  rise  of  the 
necessaries  of  life,  which  is  no  more  than  simple  commu- 
tative justice;  and  they  think  it  the  duty  of  the  re- 
spective Presbyteries  to  pay  a  due  attention  to  the  necessi- 
ties of  their  ministers,  and  make  the  best  provision  in 
their  power  for  relieving  their  distresses,  by  appointing 
them  to  supply  vacancies  and  other  ways  as  the  Presbytery 
shall  think  best." 

This  was  not  all.  As  watchmen,  they  traced  the  mani- 
festations of  Divine  Providence  in  their  troubles,  domestic, 
social  and  civil,  and  on  the  same  day  record  :  "  The  Synod, 
inquiring  into  the  cause  of  God's  controversy  with  this 
land,  are  of  opinion  that  among  many  causes  the  follow- 
ing are  the  principal :  1.  The  great  and  general  declension 
of  religion,  occasioned  by  too  general  a  neglect  of  the  duties 
of  public  and  family  worship.  2.  By  the  neglect  of  church 
government,  which  has  opened  a  door  for  the  spread  of  error 
and  increase  of  erroneous  teachers  in  the  churches.  3.  For 
the  neglect  of  family  government  and  religion,  and  for  the 
neglect  of  civil  government.     Henxie  arises  the  dreadful 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  189 

increase  of  vice  and  immorality,  injustice,  oppression,  de- 
frauding and  injuring,  a  neglect  of  the  ministry  and  qf  their 
support.*' 

In  these  post-centennial  years  compared  with  1778, 

"  Time  but  the  impression  deeper  makes, 
As  streams  their  channels  deeper  wear." 

These  specified  neglects  and  declension  have  become 
hoary  in  productiveness,  and  in  a  century  their  conse- 
quences and  effects  are  increasingly  felt.  Among  these 
effects  is  a  searedness  of  conscience,  until  multitudes  in 
our  land  would  rather  say  with  the  pagans  of  old :  "  It  is 
a  chance  which  has  happened  to  us  "  than  ''  it  is  the  Lord : 
let  him  do  what  seemeth  to  him  good  ;"  while  truth  is 
extensively  fallen  in  our  streets,  while  equity  cannot  enter, 
while  blood  touches  blood  and  the  safety  of  human  life 
from  assassination  is  daily  diminishing,  rather  than  admit 
that  God  has  (or  is  capable  of  having)  any  "  controversy 
with  this  land." 

In  the  meantime,  in  this  region,  the  ministers  of  religion 
are  extensively  like  the  ox  in  Egypt,  a  "victim  "  or  a  "god." 

The  "  beautiful  man,"  the  "  smart  man,"  the  "  powerful 
man  "  who,  with  "  gush  draws  large  houses,"  is  pampered 
with  his  thousands,  while  the  faithful  ambassadors  of 
Christ,  as  a  rule,  under  any  name,  have  ("  as  good  sol- 
diers ")  to  "  endure  hardness."  Yes,  money  can  be  now 
made  in  New  England  in  the  pulpit  as  well  as  by  the  lan- 
cet, or  by  delving  into  Blackstone.  Hence  we  have  "  like 
people  like  priest,"  as  well  as  "  like  priest  like  people." 

Another  "  cause  of  God's  controversy  with  our  land," 
now  when  vice,  immorality,  injustice  and  fraud  are 
prevalent,  manifested  by  an  overwhelming  commercial 
depression,  which  none  will  deny,  from  1873  did  exist  for 
years  onward,  is  our  desecration  of  the  Christian  Sabbath. 
It  had  not  then  lost  so  extensively  its  hold  upon  con- 
science. For  example,  when  John  Lowe  came  to  Boston 
from  Scotland,  in  June,  1773  (as  his  son  informed  me),  he 
found  his  boarding-house  at  noon  on  Sabbath  too  noisy  to 
allow  him  to  read  his  Bible  in  quietness,  and  he  went  out 
to  the  common  and  commenced  to  do  so  under  a  tree.  He 
was  forthwith  visited  by  a  select  man,  who  said,  "  Young 
man,  I  cannot  allow  you  to  stay  here  to-day."     "  Why, 


190  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

sir?  I  am  doing  no  harm,  only  reading  ray  Bible.  I 
found  my  boarding-house  (when  I  came  back  from  meet- 
ing) rather  noisy,  and  I  thought  I  would  be  quiet  and  do 
no  liarm  here."  "That  may  all  be,  and  1  can  give  you  a 
room  in  my  house  to  read  in,  but  I  cannot  let  you  stay 
here."  He  occupied  the  room  until  the  hour  of  worship 
came,  when  he  revisited  the  Presbyterian  meeting-house 
in  Long  Lane. 

Not  many  years  from  the  same  date.  Governor  John 
Adams  had  official  business  in  mid-winter,  beyond  the 
^te  of  the  present  city  of  Lowell,  wlien  a  severe  storm 
Drought  an  unusual  depth  of  snow,  and  delayed  his  return 
to  Quincy  until  "  the  roads  "  were  "  broken."  It  was  as- 
certained that  the  path  could  be  travelled  on  Sabbath,  and 
his  informants  urged  him,  as  he  had  left  Mrs.  Adams 
severely,  if  not  dangerously  ill,  some  days  since,  that  he 
had  better  return  on  that  the  Lord's  day.  But  no ;  Puri- 
tanism had  as  yet  too  firm  a  grasp  of  his  mind,  and  he 
answered,  "  I  could  do  so  with  a  clear  conscience,  but 
many  might  imitate  my  example  who  would  not  know 
my  motives."  Hence  he  "  rested  (there)  on  the  Sabbath- 
day  according  to  the  commandment." 

True,  we  have  still  the  evidence  that  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath has  3'et  an  extensive  grasp  upon  the  American  mind, 
when  the  Centennial  commissioners  did,  30  to  9,  at  Phila- 
delphia, in  187G,  firmly  oppose  the  opening  of  the  exposi- 
tion on  that  day,  for,  perhaps,  no  greater  combination  of 
the  odds  and  ends  of  creation  could  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  any  board  of  managers  than  that  to  which  they  were 
subjected  b}^  the  combined  influences  of  Papal  bishops, 
Unitarian  preachers,  Jews,  native,  French  and  German 
Infidels,  Atheists  and  drunkard  manufacturers.  Tliese 
all  gave  warning  of  a  persistent  determination  that,  fpr  the 
sake  of  sensual  pleasure,  under  the  plea  of  liberty  of  con- 
science tbey  would  (with  Graham  of  Claverhouse,  when 
he  had  murdered  John  Brown  of  Priesthill),  "take  God 
in  their  own  hands,"  and  defy  any  "  controversy  "  which 
he  could  possibh"  have  with  our  land. 

The  assailants  of  our  civil  and  religious  privileges  are  in 
growing  fellowship  and  combination,  and  "  eternal  vigi- 
lance "  must  ever  be  (under  God)  the  price  to  us  of  these 
vast  blessings. 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  191 

The  above  assigned  reasons  of  "  controversy  "  their  mod- 
erator was  "  appointed  to  transcribe,  correct  and  print  in 
the  form  of  an  address  for  distribution  among  the  Presby- 
teries, at  the  charge  of  the  Synod." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Whittaker  was  then  appointed  "  to  write  a 
letter  to  the  Presbyter}^  of  Grafton,  signifying  their  desire, 
that  the  said  Presbytery  would  join  this  Synod." 

The  date  of  formation,  members,  boundaries,  vital  force, 
usefulness,  as  well  as  the  length  of  its  days  cannot  now  be 
fully  ascertained,  as  the  hiding-place  of  its  minutes,  if  they 
exist,  is  known  only  to  a  few.  It  seems  to  liave  existed  in 
central  New  Hampshire  and  eastern  Vermont  from  about 
1776  to  1796,  as  it  is  called  not  only  Graf  ion  Presbytery 
but  also,  in  existing  minutes,  "  The  Presbytery  of  Connect- 
icut River."  Of  it  the  Rev.  John  M.  Whiton,  of  Benning- 
ton, N.  H.,  wrote,  in  February,  1856 : 

"  It  is  well  known  that  both  the  founder  and  the  origi- 
nal church  of  Dartmouth  College  were  Presbyterian,  and 
that  the  Presbytery  of  Grafton  in  that  vicinity  was  large 
and  flourishing  for  some  fourteen  years ;  that  Presbyterian 
churches,  or  ministers,  were  once  found  in  Hanover,  East 
Hanover,  Croyden,  Lyme,  Orford,  Piermont,  N.  H. ;  and 
in  Norwich,  Hartford,  Fairlee,  Royalton,  Tunbridge,  Ran- 
dolph, Thetford,  Barnard,  Newbury,  Topsham,  and  per- 
haps other  towns  in  Vermont;  that  the  two  Presidents 
Wheelocks,  Professors  Smith  and  Ripley,  the  Judges 
Bezaleel  and  William  H.  Woodward,  and  Rev.  Messrs. 
Burrougjhs  of  Hanover,  Conant  of  Lyme,  Potter  of  Nor- 
wich, Hutchinson  of  Pomfret,  Bowman  of  Barnard,  Powers 
of  Newbury  and  Burton  of  Thetford  (who  was  at  (me  time 
its  clerk),  were  prominent  members  of  that  Presbytery." 

It  appears  to  have  been  a  close  body  or  corporation, 
springing  by  Congregational  vitality,  as  to  its  worship, 
doctrines  and  usages,  into  a  galvanized  existence,  formed 
from  partial  convictions  of  the  Divine  authority  of  Presby- 
terianism,  as  the  "more  excellent  way  "  of  taking  ''care 
of  the  house  of  God,"  or,  as  more  "  agreeable  to  the  word 
of  God,  and  the  nature  and  reason  of  things."  Hence, 
says  Whiton,  "  These  churches  have  since  become  Con- 
gregational." 

I  have  called  them  a  close  corporation,  for  they  resisted 
efforts,  which  were  made  to  bring  them  into  Pre.sbyterial 
fellowship  and  Synodical  harmony. 


192  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Letter  after  letter  was  written  to  them,  but  these  elicited 
no  permanent  response  which  has  come  down  to  us,  and, 
"  at  a  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of  the  Eastward  at  Derry, 
September  loth,  1785,"  we  have  it  thus: 

"  The  Presbytery,  sensible  that  a  great  part  of  the 
strength  and  beauty  of  Zion  consists  in  love  and  union 
among  the  cliurches  and  ministers  of  our  common  Lord, 
has  long  lamented  the  divisions  and  animosities  which 
have  defaced  the  comeliness  of  the  Presbyterian  clnirch  in 
tills  country,  and  impaired  their  powers  of  resisting  the 
enemies  of  the  truth  around."  "  Comforted  with  the  in- 
formation that  the  Lord  has  moved  the  hearts  of  a  num- 
ber of  our  brethren  in  the  ministr}-,  in  the  interior  parts 
of  this  State,  to  unite  together  in  seeking  the  good  of  his 
Israel  by  reviving  the  ancient  and  Scriptural  form  of  gov- 
ernment in  his  church ;  that  they  have  formed  themselves 
into  a  regular  ecclesiastical  judicatory,  by  the  name  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Grafton,  and  continue  to  walk  together  in 
the  order  and  ordinances  of  the  gospel." 

"  This  Presbytery  rejoice  to  take  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  opening  a  friendly  correspondence  with  them,  and  offer- 
ing to  them  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  and  for  that  end 
they  did  and  hereby  do  commission  and  appoint  the  Rev. 
John  Murray,  a  worthy  and  beloved  member  of  this  body, 
to  be  their  commissioner  and  representative  at  the  said 
Presbytery  of  Grafton  ;  willing  and  requiring  him  to  repair 
thereto,  to  present  to  that  Rev.  Judicatory  the  letter  now 
delivered  to  his  care  from  us ;  also  to  lay  before  them  a 
copy  of  the  constitution  of  this  Presbytery  and  of  our  pub- 
lic testimony  against  errors ;  to  request  their  concurrence 
therein,  or  in  some  other  public  testimony  for  the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus ;  to  solicit  their  counsel  and  advice  in  what 
further  steps  are  necessary  to  be  taken  for  the  sujjpression 
of  error  and  vice,  for  the  reformation  of  what  remains 
amiss,  and  for  the  revival  of  vital  religion  among  us,  and 
especially  to  concert  with  them  some  measures  for  provid- 
ing a  supply  of  regular  and  qualified  preachers  for  our 
numerous  vacancies,  and  for  preventing  the  intrusion  of 
such  as  are  not  so,  and  in  general  to  consult  and  transact 
with  that  body  in  our  name  whatever  may  conduce  to  the 
peace  and  order  of  the  churches,  and  to  the  establishment 
of  visible  union  and  harmony  among  Presbyterians,  agreea- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  193 

ble  to  the  word  of  God  and  the  constitution  of  this  Pres- 
bytery, and  report  his  doings  to  us  at  our  next  meeting. 
"  Signed  by  order,  "  Wm.  Davidson,  Moderator." 

Some  years  expired  before  this  or  these  attempts  at 
union  terminated. 

We  now  trace  some  of  the  transactions  of  said  S,ynod 
while  it  existed. 

They  often  had  cases  of  reference  from  the  lower  courts, 
and  at  some  of  their  annual  meetings  their  sessions  were 
protracted  for  days.  They  have  not,  however,  transmitted 
to  us  clear  records  of  their  transactions,  for  at  the  same 
meeting  in  October,  1778,  when  Mr.  Houston  was  found 
delinquent,  it  is  said,  "And  as  Bedford  was  annexed  to  the 
Kingston  (possibly  the  Salem,  if  not,  it  was  the  Palmer) 
Presbytery,  till  they  should  be  able  to  stand  by  themselves, 
which  they  now  are,  therefore  this  Synod  now  dissolve  that 
relation  and  annex  said  Bedford  congregation  and  Mr. 
Houston  to  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry,  and  appoint 
that  Presbytery  to  take  cognizance  of  any  affairs  that  may 
respect  Mr.  Houston,  and  if  they  need,  to  call  in  one  or 
two  neighboring  Presbyteries  to  their  assistance." 

Windham,  September  15th,  1779,  met  and  after  ''ser- 
mon constituted  with  prayer."  Present — Whittaker,  Bald- 
win, Houston,  Strickland  and  Williams.  Absent — Perley, 
McLean,  Urquhart,  Gilmore,  Plutcheson,  Taggart,  Merrill 
and  Balch.  Perley,  Balch  and  Taggart's  excuses  sustained. 
"  Strickland  and  Williams  reported  that  Houston  brought 
from  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  a  testimonial  satisfac- 
tory, and  Synod  now  restored  him  to  full  standing."  The 
Synod,  while  they  acquitted  Elder  Gibson  of  Nottingham, 
west,  of  removing  his  neighbor's  landmark,  with  which  he 
had  been  charged  by  Asa  Davies,  Esq.,  admonish  him  for 
threatening  to  do  so,  and  restored  him  to  his  privileges. 

At  Nottingham,  September  13th,  1780,  six  present,  five 
ministers  absent,  six  elders  present.  As  the  Presbytery 
of  Grafton  did  not  receive  the  letter  of  Synod  in  time,  so 
from  them  there  is  no  reply. 

As  the  civil  court  had  lately  confined  the  families  in 

each  parish  to  their  own  bounds,  the  "  Synod  judge  that 

members  in  the  East  Parish  of  Londonderry,  belonging  to 

the  Western  congregation,  have  right  to  act  with  them 

13 


194  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

still  in  all  ecclesiastical  affairs  as  fully  as  before,  even 
though  they  continue  to  pay  for  the  support  of  the  minis- 
ter of  their  own  parish  onl3\" 

This  was  their  deliverance  on  "the  appeal  of  the 
aggrieved  members  of  the  congregation  formerly  belonging 
to  the  Rev.  David  McGregore,"  "and  further,  that  as  there, 
are  a  number  of  tiie  Western  Parish  who  cannot  conve- 
niently attend  at  the  Western  meeting-house  constantly, 
in  order  to  accommodate  them,  we  judge  that  the}^  ought 
to  be  allowed  at  the  old  house  one  Sabbath  in  eight  of  all 
the  preaching  that  shall  be  in  said  West  Parish,  and  one 
sacrament  in  four,  and  also  occasional  lectures,  till  circum- 
stances shall  be  altered." 

The  session  of  Nottingham  West  had  condemned  Rich- 
ard Cutler  for  intemperance ;  he  had  appealed  to  the  Pres- 
bytery, and  on  the  case  now  referred  to  them  "  the  Synod 
confirm  the  sentence  of  the  session,  require  him  to  submit 
to  the  admonition  of  the  moderator ;  that  he  did  and  was 
restored.'' 

At  Pelham  the  Rev.  Mr.  Merrill  had  been  laboring.  A 
large  majority  desired  to  call  and  settle  him,  and  to  pacify 
"  a  number  still  averse  thereto,"  the  majority  conckided  to 
support  him  "  by  subscription,"  not  by  a  town  tax,  "  so  that 
the  dissatisfied  may  not  complain  of  oppression."  On 
their  behalf  "  Rev.  Mr.  Merrill  and  Elder  David  Gray  de- 
sired advice  as  to  his  continuance."  They  do  "  not  advise 
a  permanent  settlement  only  from  year  to  year,  or  for  a 
longer  period,  and  to  have  their  children  baptized  by  other 
ministers  of  our  own,  and,  if  they  think  best,  have  certifi- 
cates of  standing  given  to  them  when  they  apply  to  any 
other  minister  of  this  Synod  for  special  ordinances." 

A  case  of  appeal  from  a  session,  even  when  sanctioned 
by  the  Presbytery,  was  now  reversed,  the  individual  ac- 
quitted and  restored  to  fellowship.  Other  cases  of  appeal 
from  the  lower  courts  they  settle  with  discrimination,  and 
the  accused,  in  the  spirit  of  meekness,  submitted  to  dis- 
cipline. 

Londonderry,  second  W^ednesday  of  September,  1781, 
S3mod  met.  Present — Rev.  Messrs.  Whittaker,  Baldwin, 
Houston,  Williams,  Strickland  and  Taggart,  with  elders 
from  Derry,  Salem,  Bedford,  Windham,  Pembroke,  Pel- 
ham  and  Coleraine.  Absent — Merrill,  Gilmore  and  Balch. 
Excused — McLean  and  Urquhart,  for  reasons  given. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  195 

"  The  Synod  were  favored  with  a  conference  with  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  Annan,  relative  to  a  union  with  their  body, 
and  greatly  rejoice  at  the  motion  they  have  made  and  at 
the  great  harmony  of  sentiments,  both  as  to  doctrine  and 
discipline,  which  exists  between  them  and  us.  We  feel 
willing  even  to  drop  our  13th  article  and  alter  our  14th  to 
coincide  with  their  sentiments,  but  decision  is  deferred  to 
the  next  meeting." 

As  when  the  declinature  was  taken  by  the  Boston  con- 
gregation on  September  20th,  1774,  some  thirty  persons  did 
not  join  in  it  and  continued  their  connection  with  the 
Boston  Presbytery,  now  the  Synod;  so,  on  May  15th, 
1782,  the  Synod  met  pro  re  nata  in  Boston  (as  we  will  see), 
on  September  11th,  1782  (stated  by  the  Rev.  Simon  Wil- 
liams). An  item  of  business  there  was  the  case  of  the 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Merrill,  charged  with  getting  his  wife, 
through  deceit,  to  sign  two  instruments,  and  who  had 
made  gross  charges  against  her.  ''  He  had  disturbed  the 
peace  of  the  Presbytery  and  put  Presbyterianism  as  well 
as  Christianity  to  an  open  shame." 

The  Rev.  Moses  Baldwin,  who  "exhibited  the  charges 
against  Mr.  Merrill,  not  being  present,  the  Synod  proceeded 
ex  officio^  "  Rev.  S.  Williams  protested  against  our  j^ro- 
ceeding  at  present  and  withdrew." 

"  The  Synod  sent  a  letter  to  him  desiring  him  to  deliver 
up  the  papers  of  the  two  last  sessions  and  received  a  re- 
fusal in  writing." 

"  Merrill  acknowledged  the  fact  charged,  denied  the  de- 
ceit, made  confessions  and  retractions  of  his  statements 
about  his  wife  and  family,  asked  forgiveness  of  his  wife, 
of  God,  the  public,  and  of  the  Sj'uod,  signed  his  written 
retraction,"  and  "  They  admonished  him  to  greater  circum- 
spection, relying  on  Divine  grace,  and  recommended  him 
to  the  churches."  Mr.  Houston  desired  it  may  be  added, 
"  That  this  may  be  open  to  a  revision  at  the  stated  meet- 
ing." 

Londonderry,  September  11th,  1782,  Synod  met. 

Present,  seven  ministers  witli  five  elders.  Absent,  five. 
Rev.  Simon  Williams,  upon  the  electing  of  the  clerk,  with- 
drew, saying,  he  would  have  no  more  to  do  Avith  that 
body;  retained  the  papers  of  Synod;  offered  to  read  a 
paper  containing  his  declinature,  which  was  laid  on  the 


196  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

table,  and  afterwards  read  by  the  moderator.  With  him, 
united  his  elder  from  Windham,  John  Dinsmore,  Benja- 
min Smith,  Elder  of  Bedford,  and  James  Robertson,  Elder 
from  Penbrook.  They  express  grief  and  trouble  at  what 
they  had  tliat  day  heard  in  Synod,  viz. : 

1st.  In  receiving  the  Rev.  Solomon  Perley,  settled  under 
the  Congregational  discipline,  as  a  legal  member  of  your 
body. 

2d.  In  not  allowing  the  elders  of  vacant  congregations 
to  vote  in  choosing  the  moderator  and  clerk.  Dr.  Whit- 
taker  called,  and  you  attended  a  meeting  in  Boston,  which 
was  "  a  direct  violation  of  the  3d  article  of  our  constitution," 
which  says,  "Appeals  and  references  from  sessions  to  Pres- 
byteries, and  from  Presbytery  to  the  Synod,  and  no  link 
of  this  chain  of  subordination  shall  be  overleaped,  or  this 
order  inverted." 

3d.  The  Synod  at  a  previous  session  declared,  that 
"  from  the  representation  of  the  Rev.  Moses  Baldwin  re- 
specting the  Rev.  Mr.  Merrill,  they  would  take  no  notice 
of  his  affairs  until  he  would,  according  to  order,  clear  his 
character  with  his  own  Presbytery." 

In  this  Mr.  Williams  maintained,  that  "  order "  was 
"heaven's  first  law,"  and  in  ignoring  the  Presbytery,  its 
duties  and  privileges,  Synod  was  (at  least  apparently) 
concentrating  power  to  its  own  destruction. 

"  Not  being  able  to  concur,  nor  passively  to  submit,"  they 
say,  "  we  take  this  lawful  liberty  to  exonerate  our  own 
consciences,"  and  that  they  did  "  meekly,  quietly  and 
peaceably  withdraw." 

The  Synod  found  themselves  under  the  necessity  of 
proceeding  against  them.  As  the  Boston  Presbytery  (now 
the  Synod  of  New  England)  had  in  1769,  and  twice  in 
1774,  prohibited  the  ministers  of  the  churches  of  their 
body  from  holding  communion  with  the  Rev.  John  Mur- 
ray of  Boothbay,  as  Williams  had  invited  him  to  assist  at 
the  Lord's  Supper,  and  had,  without  consulting  any  of  his 
brethren,  read  the  papers,  and  did  what  was  done  for  in- 
ducting said  Murray  at  Newbury  port,  as  he  had  conducted 
himself  in  the  time  of  Synod  in  a  very  disorderly  way ;  as 
he  has  indulged  in  ver}^  indecent  reflections  and  even 
mockeries  of  his  brethren  in  time  of  Synod,  and  has  shewn 
ungovernedj  sudden  passions,  contrary  to  the  express  com- 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  197 

mand  of  Christ ;  that  he  has  induced  some  elders  to  unite 
with  him,  and  for  several  other  reasons  recorded,  the  Synod, 
with  grief  and  reluctance,  declare  the  said  Williams  guilty 
of  contumacy,  schism  and  hypocrisy,  contrary  to  tlie  laws 
of  Christ  and  the  peace  of  the  church. 

''  Therefore,  we  do  susj^end  said  Williams  from  his  office 
as  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  from  all  communion  with  any 
of  this  body,  till  he  shall  manifest  repentance  for  the  above 
offences.  And  we  earnestly  beseech  him  and  the  elders 
joining  with  him  to  consider  their  ways  and  humble  them- 
selves before  God,  and  seek  pardon  through  the  blood  of 
Christ,  and  speedily  heal  the  breach  which  they  have 
made  in  the  church,  and  we  will  not  cease  to  pray  for 
these  blessed  effects  of  this  censure. 

"  Voted,  That  this  censure  be  subject  to  the  revisal  of 
the  next  meeting." 

These  brethren  were  allowed  till  the  first  day  of  Novem- 
ber next  to  manifest  their  repentance. 

"  Ordered,  that  a  letter  expressive  of  a  desire  of  union 
with  them  be  written  to  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  New 
York." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Perley  was  directed  to  instruct  his  people 
in  Presbyterianism  "  and  lead  them  to  a  union  with  this 
body,  or  the  Presbytery  on  the  Connecticut  river." 

"  Whereas  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry  have  dismissed 
the  congregation  of  the  West  Parish,  in  Londonderr}^  from 
their  Presbytery,  yet  the  Synod  judge  they  retain  their 
relation  to  this  Synod."* 

From  the  notices  given  and  extracts  taken  from  records, 
it  will  be  seen  that  Presbyterianism  in  New  England  had 
passed  its  noonday,  and  that  its  tide  had  begun  to  ebb. 
Different  causes  conspired  to  produce  this  result.  The 
want  of  a  fund  for  the  aid  of  young  men  preparing  for  the 
ministry,  had  its  influence.  For  this,  the  hopes  of  Mur- 
ray and  others,  to  establish  a  Burse  at  Dartmouth,  were 
from  time  to  time  expressed.  But,  in  war  times,  with  a 
deep  commercial  depression  settled  on  the  land,  threaten- 
ing to  drive  the  ministry  from  their  pulpits,  and  but  a 

*The  Rev.  William  Davidson  and  his  congregation  joined  the  Pres- 
bytery at  the  Eastward  on  October  23d,  1781.  They  consequently  formed 
no  part  of  this  Synod. 


198  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

limited  amount  of  public  spirit  developed  in  the  few  who 
had  means,  nothing  for  the  support  and  increase  of  Pres- 
byter ianism  Avas  estabUshed,  but  what  was  soon  assimilated 
to  its  surroundings,  es|)ecially  in  the  bounds  of  "  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Connecticut  river." 

Another  cause  was  the  violent  tempers  of  not  a  few  of 
the  ministry.  Thus  to  one  it  was  said,  "  Mr.  Moorehead, 
you  have  double  as  much  grace  as  any  other  one  of  us, 
but  you  have  not  half  enough  for  yourself."  And  we  have 
just  noticed  a  part  of  the  charges  of  a  hasty  spirit  and  a 
violent  temj^er,  but  too  truly  made  against  the  Rev.  Simon 
Williams.  The  immoralities  in  life  of  not  a  few  of  the 
ministers  conspired  to  the  same  end.  Bat  by  the  want  of  the 
stated  ordinances  of  the  gospel  in  many  cases,  and  by  the 
teacliing  of  erroneous  doctrines  in  others,  "pure  and  unde- 
liled  religion,"  during  this  quarter  of  a  century,  among 
Presbyterians  in  New  England,  "  gained  much  harm  and 


In  many  towns  congregations  came  to  Presbj^terianism, 
sometimes  to  avoid  Jonathan  Edwards'  "  confused  way  of 
church  government  in  the  land,"  as  did  the  congregation 
of  Newburyport.  While  those  coming  from  the  British 
Isles  took  it  the  natural  way,  their  posterity  in  a  few  gen- 
erations, had  Presbyterianism  so  mild  that  it  ran  out  of 
their  systems.  They  did  not  "  take  heed  to  the  doctrine  " 
''  sealed  by  the  blood  of  the  covenant,"  and  in  not  a  few 
cases,  ceased  to  be  "  valiant  for  the  truth  in  the  earth." 

In  some  towns  "  the  earth  helped  the  woman,"  and  men 
must  honor  the  church  of  the  Parish,  if  not  the  Lord,  with 
their  substance,  or  be  cast  into  prison  as  were  those  two 
of  Chester,  N.  H.  Upon  the  churches,  as  well  as  the  other 
interests  of  the  community,  the  war  produced  deleterious 
effects  in  lowering  the  standard  of  morality  and  giving  in- 
creasing vitality  to  crime. 

The  main  conflict  was,  however,  partly  between  the  dis- 
similarity of  the  races  in  juxta  position  as  this  w^as  moulded 
and  influenced  by  the  form  of  church  government  and  by 
worship. 

As  Christ  executes  his  kingly  office,  not  onl}"  by  subdu- 
ing his  people  to  himself,  but  by  ruling  them,  so,  where 
men  view  the  Bible  as  simply  adequately  inspired,  and 
not  plenarily  nor  verbally,  it  is  not  a  difficult  process  to 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  199 

eliminate  (from  it)  ordination  "  by  the  laying  on  of  the 
hands  of  the  Presbytery  "  and  all  that  is  peculiar  to  that 
species  of  church  polity.  Hence,  so  long  as  ''  the  church 
of  the  Parish  "  was  maintained  by  the  sword  of  the  civil 
power,  compelling  all  within  its  prescribed  limits  to  sup- 
port the  minister  of  the  town,  and  if  they  were  of  a  differ- 
ent persuasion,  forcing  them  in  addition,  to  support  their 
own  ministry,  large  inducements  were  extended,  in  almost 
all  cases,  to  Presbyterians  in  New  England,  to  conform  to 
their  surroundings.  A  large  source  of  change,  conspiring 
to  the  enfeebling  of  Presbyterianism  in  these  bounds,  also 
increasingly  flowed  from  the  influence  of  the  local  system 
on  domestic  life  and  the  social  relations. 

"  Let  the  wife  see  that  she  reverence  her  husband  "  (Eph. 
V.  33),  when  viewed  as  only  adequately  inspired,  is  not 
friendly  to  the  rule,  of  elders  in  a  church,  nor  to  the  sys- 
tem, the  very  existence  of  which  implies  it. 

The  idea  of  honoring  "  the  faces  of  the  elders,"  when  col- 
lated with,  "  let  your  women  keep  silence  in  the  churches  " 
and  levelled  to  adequate  inspiration,  has  seldom  a  very 
salutary  influence  on  that  oneness  which  constitutes  the 
marriage  relation,  especially  where  a  believer  in  verbal  in- 
spiration "  renders  to  the  wife  due  benevolence,"  and  "  so 
loves  his  wife  even  as  himself."  It  requires  plenary  and 
verbal  inspiration  to  make  "  the  weaker  vessel  "  realize  the 
meaning  of  husband,  that  is  "  houseband,  the  band  and 
bond  of  the  house,  who  shall  bind  and  hold  it  together." 
We  have  seen  this  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Colonel 
Reid,  "All  this  with  your  advice,  not  otherwise."  (Letter 
to  him,  September  8th,  1776.) 

It  must  be  remembered  that  these  statements  are  made 
in  reference  to  the  causes  then  commencing  operation,  for, 
until  after  the  Revolutionary  war,  the  New  Englanders 
were  Puritans  and  believed  in  the  plenary  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures  very  literally.  They  at  one  time  believed 
in  the  verbal  inspiration  of  Ex.  xxii.  18,  "  Thou  shalt  not 
suffer  a  witch  to  live,"  but,  when  the  mind  recoiled  from 
this  too  literal  an  interpretation,  it  did  not  stop  at  the 
analogy  of  faith  and  plenary  inspiration,  but  went  on  to 
the  perfection  of  mental  instability  and,  in  our  modern 
times,  rested  in  an  adequacy  of  the  supernatural,  or  in 
sentiment,  or  in  mere  opinion,  taste  or  feeling. 


200  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Hence,  "  I  will  not  believe  what  I  cannot  understand," 
has  become  at  times  a  practical  aphorism  with  some  of  the 
descendants  of  the  Puritans. 

Consequently,  where  faith  and  logic  of  such  diverse 
kinds  were  found  in  father  and  mother,  the  children  would 
usually  take  the  course  which  led  to  "  the  largest  liberty," 
the  easiest,  the  most  honorable  and  popular  form.  In 
doing  so,  they  were  not  always  required  by  "the  customs 
of  the  churches  "  "  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of 
God." 

It  would  take  the  faith  and  logic  of  Moses  to  make  this 
choice.  * 

When  the  Presbyterians  came  among  them  they  found 
the  New  Enj^landers  almost  universally  "  sound  in  the  faith 
of  God's  elect,"  and  pure  in  morals.  As  unsanctified 
human  beings,  they  were  not  perfect  nor  free  from  sectarian 
rancor,  and  they  viewed  Quakers,  Anabaptists,  Episco- 
palians, and  Presbyterians  as  intruders.  Still,  while  four- 
fifths  of  them  statedly  waited  on  God  in  public  worship 
in  all  seasons  of  the  year  (with  rare  exceptions),  and  a 
man  under  oath  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons (in  1660)  could  declare  "  I  have  lived  seven  years  in 
New  England,  and  I  have  never  there  heard  a  profane  oath 
or  seen  a  drunken  man,"  the  calamities  and  immoralities 
of  war  a  century  afterwards  extensively  marred  this  pur- 
ity and  simplicity  in  almost  a  single  generation. 

The  air  of  enthusiasm  introduced  by  breaking  the  fetters 
of  colonial  dependency  and  introducing  with  national  ex- 
istence national  liberty,  had  (not  necessarily)  apparently 
an  extensive  tendency  to  throw  off  the  wholesome  re- 
straints of  superiors,  to  induce  the  young  to  forget  their 
position,  and  to  undermine  "  the  things  which  are  true, 
pure,  lovely,  and  of  good  report."  Like  Jerusalem  in 
ruins,  "the  faces  of  the  ciders  were  no  longer  honored." 
It  also  gave  ample  "  scope  and  verge "  to  theological 
thought,  as  it  was  imported  from  Continental  Europe, 
until  their  various  "  schemes  "  supplanted  the  logic  and 
theology  of  the  New  England  Primer. 

These  and  other  co-operating  influences  in  the  same 
direction  were  bursting  the  bud  during  the  short  years  of 
the  existence  of  the  Synod  of  New  England  ;  but  the  skill 
and  application  of  one  man  probably  surpassed  them  all. 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  201 

The  Rev.  Isaac  Watts,  D.  D.,  the  guest  of  men  of  rank 
in  England,  not  only  wrote  "  On  the  Improvement  of  the 
Mind  "  and  " Logic" — very  useful  works — but  also  set  forth 
the  belief  that  ''  the  souls  of  the  children  of  unbelieving 
parents  dying  in  infancy  are  annihilated"  {Buck^s  Die), 
and  ''  that  the  first  thing  which  God  made  was  the  soul  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  by  this  his  first  production  he  made  all 
things  else." 

This  fanciful  and  false  idea  was  by  Jona.  Edwards  (  Works') 
refuted  in  fourteen  particulars,  and  it  lies  harmlessly 
among  the  mental  lumber  which  has  been  consigned  "to 
tlie  moles  and  to  #he  bats."  Not  so  the  outgoings  of  the 
soul  of  the  doctor  in  poetry.  For  his  "  Cradle  Hymns," 
multitudes  would  have  remembered  his  name  with  pleasure 
if  he  had  stopped  there,  but  of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  given 
by  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  undertook  to  imitate  139  ''  in 
the  language  of  the  New  Testament,"  and  concerning  them 
declared,  "  I  would  like  to  see  David  turned  into  a  Chris- 
tian." 

The  nourishing  deep  roots  of  a  Christian  Church  are 
found  where  families  and  households  evening  and  morn- 
ing shew  forth  the  loving  kindness  of  the  Lord  in  sweet 
psalms,  and  from  their  childhood  youth  are  taught  to 
know  the  Scriptures ;  where,  out  of  the  mouths  of  babes 
or  infants,  praise  is  given  to  God  beneath  the  parental 
roof  When  such  flow  together  to  the  heights  of  Zion,  lier 
assemblies  are  blessed  with  times  of  refreshing. 

At  the  risk  of  intelligent  contradiction,  I  state  that  just   ^^ 
in  proportion  as  the  poetry  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Isaac  Watts  is  •    I 
introduced  into  any  church  or  by  any  denomination,  "the       L 
voice  of  joy  and  rejoicing  in  the  dwellings  of  the  righteous  " 
is  diminished.     His  "David  turned  into  a  Christian,"  even 
when  supplemented  by  the  skeptic,  Joel  BarloAV,  and  sanc- 
tified by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Timothy  Dwight,  is  not  adapted  to 
express  the  spiritual  joy  of  God-loving  families,  who  abide 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty,  in  shewing  forth  his 
loving  kindness  in  the  morning  and  declaring  to  him  his 
faithfulness  every  night.     They  must  sing  psalms  to  him 
with  grace  to  express  the  emotions  of  their  souls,  for  his 
command   is,   "  Is  any  merry  ?     Let   him   sing  psalms." 
And  assuredly,  if  his  fragments  of  the  psalter  imitated  in 
the  language  of  the  New  Testament  will  not  express  such 


S02  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

heaven-born  joy,  his  hymns  for  the  use  of  "  vulgar  Chris- 
tians" will  not.  Not  any  one  of  them  is  a  portion  of  the 
living  and  incorruptible  seed  of  the  Word  which  liveth 
and  abideth  for  ever,  and  ''  what  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat?" 
I  present  the  early  psalm-singing  New  England  in  contrast 
with  the  present  as  irrefragable  proof,  "impugn  it  who 
lists."     So  Presbyterianism  there  has  found  it. 

This  innovation,  exchanging  a  reality — a  perfect  whole 
— for  an  imitation,  desolating  to  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,"  we  have  seen  was  opposed  by  Coleman,  of  Brattle 
street,  Boston,  and  other  faithful  men,  but  in  vain.  For 
in  the  course  of  a  generation  or  two,  it  in  the  Congrega- 
tionalist  Churches  supjjlanted  "  the  Bay  State  Version  of  the 
Psalms,"  silenced  the  Jehovah's  song  in  thousands  of  fam- 
ilies, and  finally  played  the  whale  with  Jonah  with  the 
Presbyterian  version  almost  universally.  When  and 
wherever  "  godliness  "  existed  in  New  England,  its  vitality 
was  always  and  onl}^  commensurate  with  its  "  sound  doc- 
trine "  {alias  Calvinism),  and  the  daily  use  of  "those  glo- 
rious psalms  let  down  from  a  higher  plane  "  (Rev.  Joseph 
Cook). 

In  1774,  the  Rev.  Moses  Baldwin,  who  in  early  life  had 
been  trained  to  the  Imitations  and  Hymns,  became  (as  all 
religious  poetical  innovators  do)  a  "  man  of  feeling."  He 
had  "  a  felt  want,"  and  he  not  only  obtained  liberty  to  in- 
dulge it,  but,  as  "  forbidden  fruit  is  sweet,"  his  example 
became  prevalent.  Among  those  congregations  which 
came  to  Presbyterianism  they  were  both  pabulum  and 
condiment.  Into  most  of  the  churches  composing  the 
Presbyteries  and  the  Synod  they  were  speedily  introduced, 
and  the  new  tunes  required  for  the  enjoyment  of  them  did 
violence  to  the  feelings  of  many  of  the  aged. 

When  the  use  of  the  Imitations  became  general  among 
them,  "  Ichabod  "  was  written  as  frontlets  between  the  eyes 
of  Presbyterianism  in  New  England,  and  rottenness  had 
entered  into  its  bones.  Emigration  to  their  towns  had  ex- 
tensively ceased,  and  their  youth  witnessed  with  diminish- 
ing interest  the  abandonment  of  the  "  sweet  psalms  "  with 
which  their  fathers  and  forefathers  had  caused  the  wilder- 
ness and  solitary  place  to  rejoice,  as  their  morning  and 
evening  songs  went  up  from  "  the  dwellings  of  the  right- 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  203 

There  is  something  magnanimous  in  contending  for  a 
just  cause  under  adverse  circumstances,  and  this  the  Synod 
of  New  England,  so  long  as  its  diminished  forces  wore  the 
name,  earnestly  did.  Their  bounds  were  extensive — from 
Palmer,  Mass.,  to  Eastern  Maine — and  their  disadvantages 
were  consequently  great.  The}^  could  not  at  any  time, 
owing  in  part  to  the  expenses,  during  the  seven  years'  war, 
connected  with  travelling  for  days  on  horseback,  often  in 
inclement  seasons,  over  bad  roads,  have  a  perfectly  full 
meeting.  From  time  to  time  their  roll  was  diminished  by 
the  wrongdoing  of  some,  requiring  the  exercise  of  disci- 
pline, and  occasionally  among  them  there  "arose  men 
speaking  perverse  things,"  "  causing  contentions,"  and 
eventually  withdrawing  from  their  fellowship.  They  had 
also,  doubtless,  been  somewhat  disappointed  from  the  fail- 
ure of  the  anticipated  co-operation  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Grafton. 

While  carrying  on  their  watch  and  care  as  the  Boston 
Presbyter}^  on  November  9th,  1774,  at  Newbur3^port,  the 
Kev.  Mr.  Hutchinson,  of  Pomfret,  Vt.,  had  petitioned 
them  (probably  with  others  in  his  region)  "  with  regard  to 
the  forming  of  a  Presbytery  at  Dartmouth  College,"  founded 
by  Presbyterians,  and  then  five  years  old.  They  recom- 
mended to  him  prudence  in  his  exertions  in  the  case,  and 
to  report  to  them ;  but  "the  Presbytery  of  Grafton  "  or 
"  of  Connecticut  River "  (which,  on  October  21st,  1783, 
not  only  licensed  Mr.  Simon  F.  Williams,  but  excommu- 
nicated the  Rev.  Mr.  Burroughs)  stood  aloof  from  the 
Synod,  while  "  the  Presbytery  at  the  Eastward  "  formed 
extensively  an  ecclesiastical  asylum  for  the  troublers  of 
their  Israel. 

Consequently,  of  the  thirteen  ministers,  McGregore, 
Houston,  Mitchell,  Perley,  Strickland,  Merrill,  McLean, 
Urquhart,  Whittaker,  Balch,  Williams,  Baldwin,  and  Tag- 
gart,  with  six  ruling  elders  (while  Parsons,  Gilmore,  and 
Hutchinson  were  absent),  who  at  Seabrook,  on  June  2d, 
1775,  signed  their  constitution  as  a  Synod,  but  a  part  were 
present  at  their  last  meeting  at  Londonderry  (West  Parish) 
on  September  12th,  1782,  viz.,  Whittaker,  Houston,  Wil- 
liams, Strickland,  Taggart,  Merrill,  and  Perley,  with  five 
elders,  while  McLean,  Urquhart,  Balch,  and  Baldwin  were 
absent.    At  this  meeting,  Williams  (with  the  elders  from 


204  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Windham,  Bedford,  and  Pembrook)  withdrew,  and,  as 
stated,  he  was  suspended. 

The  varied  causes  which  have  been  noticed,  and  proba- 
bly others,  were  all  conspiring  to  prevent  the  growth  of 
pure  Presbyterianism,  and  whether  understanding  denomi- 
nationally or  not,  the  influences  brought  to  bear  upon 
them,  they  felt  the  reality.  They  "  knew  that  the  heavens 
do  rule,"  and  instead  of  endeavoring  further  to  uphold, 
that  on  which  their  hearts  were  set  at  their  organization, 
they  submitted  to  the  developments  of  the  Divine  pleasure. 
On  September  11th  they  record:  "The  Synod  taking  into 
consideration  the  broken  circumstances  to  which  the  Provi- 
dence of  God  hath  brought  us  by  the  death  of  several  of 
>v  \:  our  members  and  otherwise  ;  therefore,  we  judge  it  neces- 
.  sary  to  dissolve  this  Synod  for  the  present,  and  form  a 
Presbytery  of  the  whole,  by  the  name  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Salem. 

"  Voted,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  wait  on  the 
Grafton  Presbytery,  in  order  to  open  the  way  to  form  a 
union  with  them,  in  some  manner  that  may  be  for  mutual 
advantage."  Dr.  Whittaker  was  appointed.  Then  came 
the  fact,  solemn,  indeed,  to  those  whose  ''  hearts  trembled 
for  the  ark  of  God,"  for  on  September  12th,  1782,  the 
record  reads : 

"  The  Synod  being  this  day  dissolved  by  an  unanimous 
vote,  the  members  convened  at  the  house  of  Elder  Fisher 
in  order  to  form  themselves  into  a  Presbytery." 

Nature  produces  maturity  in  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdoms,  wdiich  by  inevitable  law  is  succeeded  by  decay. 
Empires  and  renowned  cities  have  their  growth,  their 
grandeur  and  dilapidation,  and  Presbyterianism  in  New 
England  did  not  escape  the  common  doom.  Between 
1768  and  1793  this  polity  was  extensively  spread  in  this 
region  wdiere  all  its  surroundings  were  hostile  to  its  ex- 
istence. 

In  the  following-named  places,  as  well  as  probably  some 
others,  especially  in  Connecticut,  it  was  for  a  time  planted, 
viz. :  Boston,  Derry,  Londonderry,  Worcester,  Chester, 
Palmer,  Oxford,  Porpooduc  on  Casco  Bay,  Oakham, 
Blandford,  Pelham,  Newburyport,  Salem,  Saybrook,  Pem- 
broke, Windham,  Goffstown,  Bedford,  Kingston,  Coleraine, 
Eastoiia  Lunenburg,  Peterboro,  Rutland,  Paxton,  Boscawen, 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  205 

Princeton,  Greenwich,  Groton,  Candia,  Antrim,  Deer  Isl- 
and, New  Boston,  Dunbarton,  Greenfield,  Litchfield,  Not- 
tingham, Canterbury,  New  Gloucester,  Canaan,  Sylvester, 
Topsham,  Turner,  Francestown,  Gray,  Winthrop,  Machias, 
Lincoln,  Amesbury,  Boothbay,  Bristol,  Brunswick,  Belfast, 
Pownalboro,  Warren  and  St.  Georges,  Voluntown,  Damar- 
iscotta.  New  Market,  Falmouth,  Hanover,  East  Hanover, 
Lyme,  CroN-den,  Orford,  Piermont,  N.  H.,  Norwich, ^Hart- 
ford, Fairlee,  Pvoyalton,  Tunbridge,  Randolph,  Thetford, 
Barnard,  Newbury,  Topsham,  Pomfret  and  perhaps  other 
towns  in  Vermont;  apart  from  Craftsbury,  Barnet,  Rye- 
gate  and  South  R^'esrate,  which  may  be  afterwards  noticed. 

In  but  a  few  of  these  (above  seventy)  places  was  it  fairly 
planted.  In  many,  perhaps  in  most  cases,  Edwards'  "  un- 
settled and  confused  way  "  induced  not  a  few  towns  to 
give  to  this  new  thing  a  trial,  as  was  done  in  Newburyport 
and  Easton.  Beside  this,  while  the  form  of  government 
might  be  approximated,  the  doctrine  extensively  main- 
tained and  discipline  executed,  the  great  difficulty  was  in 
and  with  the  Avorship. 

One  class  of  Presbyterians,  maintaining  that  all  scrip- 
ture is  plenarily  inspired,  found  their  matter  of  praise  ex- 
clusively in  the  Psalter.  This  was  the  case  not  only  with 
the  Scotch-Irish  but  with  the  French.  They  used  it  only, 
and  to  their  metrical  version  they  had  to  every  line  musi- 
cal notes  placed.  Not  so  the  New  Englanders.  In  some 
cases  they  might  have  brought  with  them  the  Bay  State 
version,  but,  during  this  period,  they  seem  to  have  used 
only  the  139  psalms  "  imitated,"  together  with  the  Doctor's 
three  books  of  hymns.  In  such  cases,  while  order  might 
have  been  more  extensively  kept  by  the  use  of  Presbyte- 
rial  forms  and  faithful  pastors  and  elders  encouraged  and 
sustained,  yet  the  overshadowing  wings  of  the  civil  power 
made  the  sustenance  of  the  ministry  more  secure,  hence 
they  easily  appealed  to  Csesar.  In  all  but  a  very  few  cases 
the  "  loaves  and  fishes  "  of  Presbyterianism  were  but  small 
and  somewhat  uncertain.  Hence,  McKinstr}^,  Keith,  Hill- 
house  and  others  of  that  generation,  while  indebted  to 
Presbyterianism  for  their  moral  worth,  were  sustained  as 
Congregational  teachers  by  civil  law.  And  while  we  have 
seen  McGregor,  Taggart  and  Brown  of  the  next  generation 
supported  in  the  same  way  as  ministers  of  towns,  stiU,  to 


206   '  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

3^oung  and  aspiring  natives,  it  was  not  always  desirable  to 
risk  the  truthfulness  of  the  Master,  that  "  the  laborer  is 
worthy  of  his  hire."  Hence,  we  find  not  only  McKeen 
leaving,  but  the  two  sons  of  the  Rev.  Simon  Williams  of 
Windham,  after  obtaining  aid  from  Presbyterian  churches 
as  Bursars  at  Dartmouth  College,  entering  declinatures  to 
Presbyterial  authority  and  becoming  Congregationalist 
preachers. 

In  all  this,  however,  we  have  the  collapse  of  the  Synod 
of  New  England,  after  a  life  of  seven  years  and  three 
months,  and  "  a  nation  "  must  be  found  to  "  change  their 
gods"  before  another  comes  into  existence  in  the  same 
territorial  bounds. 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  207 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

1768-1793— Presbytery  of  Salem— Rev.  R.  Annan— Rev.  Mr.  Merrill— 
Grafton  Presbytery  —  Groton  —  Chars^es  unfounded  — Taggart — His 
overtures — Miltimore  "our  candidate" — Xo  progress  in  union  yet — 
Groton  received — To  be  cautious  in  receiving  members,  unless  Pres- 
byterians— Whittaker  slandered — A  difficulty  between  McLean  and 
Urquhart  about  Urquiutrt's  wives — Result — Wliittaker  and  a  Congre- 
gational Council — Cbarges  refuted  in  1774 — Dr.  Wliittaker  exliorted 
to  a  search  wiiile  he  is  a  worthy  minister — Merrill  from  bad  to  worse 
— McLean  dismissed — Gray — Notes  of  the  ciuirch  and  of  the  town — 
Five,  who  call  themselves  Baj)tists,  dissent — Dr.  Whittaker  dismissed 
— Settled  in  Canaan,  Maine,  1784 — New  towns  apply — Sylvester  set- 
tles Strickland,  1784 — (£50) — Creditable  to  both  parties— A  hearty 
wisii — To  ask  an  "  Incorporation  " — An  exhortation — Presbytery  now 
in  the  humor — Uniformity  recommended — Union  River  received — 
Sine  die — Called  meeting  at  Turner — L^rquhart  deceives — Perley  of 
Gray  absent — Congregation  not  hospitable  to  Presbytery — Expedi- 
ency— Minutes  defective — Williams  cut  off — Merrill  deposed — George 
Gilmore  long  absent  is  dropped — Final  meeting  of  Presbytery  at  Gray 
— 1791 — Perley  to  be  dismissed  from  Gray — Adjourned  Sine  die — W^e 
have  seen  development,  growth,  vitality  and  decay  of  the  Boston 
Presbytery,  the  Synod,  etc. — We  now  turn  to  the  Presbytery  at  the 
Eastward. 

We  turn  now  to  the  Presbytery  of  Salem.  It  was  formed 
in  the  house  of  Elder  Fisher,  at  Londonderry,  N.  H.,  on 
September  12th,  1782,  and  consisted  of  Rev.  Messrs.  Whit- 
taker, Houston,  Strickland,  Perley,  Taggart,  Merrill,  with 
Ruling  Elders  Thomas  McGee,  Hubbard  and  Oliver.  The 
next  recorded  meeting  was  held  at  Salem,  on  September 
10th,  1783,  when  four  ministers  were  present  and  seven 
were  absent. 

•  As  Mr.  Williams  did  not  appear  his  suspension  was  con- 
tinued. He  and  the  elders  who  joined  with  "  him  in  his 
declinature,"  were  cited  again.  An  answer  to  a  letter  pre- 
viously written  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Clarke,  of  Salem,  N.  Y., 
was  then  read,  "  expressing  a  desire  of  said  union  and  an 
engagement  to  lay  the  matter  before  their  body  (the  Asso^ 


208  HISTORY  OP   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ciate  Reformed  Presbytery  of  New  York)  at  their  next 
meeting."  "A  reply  was  now  ordered  to  be  sent  through 
the  Rev.  Robert  Annan  of  Boston."  The  Rev.  Mr.  Merrill 
being  charged  with  crime  now  failed  to  appear. 

Dr.  Whittaker  was  directed  to  continue  his  correspond- 
ence with  the  Grafton  Presbytery.  Commissioners  ap- 
])eared  from  a  society  in  Groton  asking  to  be  received,  but 
Presbytery  ascertained  that  said  associated  persons  were 
under  censure,  and  that  the  Congregationalist  church  to 
which  they  belonged  had  refused  them  a  copy  of  said  cen- 
sure. This  procedure  was  deemed  unjust  and  tyrannical. 
Presbytery  received  them  and  requested  "  said  church  to 
give  all  the  light  they  can  in  the  affair." 

The  Rev.  Jno.  Urc^uhart  presented  severe  charges  against 
"the  people  of  Warren  and  8t.  Gcrges  lower  plantation," 
and  desired  a  dismission  from  his  charge.  Presbytery 
dealt  with  them,  and  investigated  the  charges  wliich  they 
preferred  against  him,  which,  after  the  investigation,  were 
considered  unfounded. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Taggart  by  letter  now  informed  the 
Presbytery  that  "  he  had  made  overtures  to  the  Associate 
Reformed'^  Presbytery  of  New  York  for  a  junction  with 
them  as  far  as  may  be  without  a  dismission  from  this 
body."  This  step  was  deemed  to  be  "  irregular  and  un- 
presbyterial,"  as  he  had  not  previously  informed  them^  and 
as  this  Presbytery  were  now  "endeavoring  a  union  with 
the  same  body."  So  he  has  prejudged  the  matter,  and 
they  ordered  him  to  appear  before  them  at  their  next  meet- 
ing to  give  satisfaction.  A  Mr.  ]\Iiltimore  now  appears  as 
"  our  candidate." 

Groton,  June  9th,  1784.  Presbytery  met.  Present,  seven 
ministers,  with  two  elders;  absent,  four,  with  ^' their  el- 
ders." 

No  answer  had  been  received  to  the  letter  written  to  the 
Rev.  Robert  Annan  respecting  union  ;  nor  had  any  been 
received  from  the  Grafton  Presbytery,  to  whom  Dr.  Whit- 
taker had  written.  On  receipt  of  letters  from  Mr.  Taggart 
and  the  A.  R.  Presbytery,  they  are  to  be  informed  that 
while  "we  are  wiUing  to  hold  Christian  correspondence 
and  communion  with  them,  it  appears  to  be  someAvhat  ir- 
regular to  dismiss  Mr.  Taggart  under  present  circum- 
stances ;  therefore  we  must  wait  for  further  light."    They 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND. 

ask  also  "  to  have  their  continued  application  for  union 
presented  before  the  A.  R.  Synod  for  their  judgment." 

Upon  the  spot,  they  found  that  while  it  was  represented 
that  the  whole  society  in  Groton  applying  for  admission 
to  the  Presbyterian  persuasion  were  under  the  censure  of 
the  Congregational  Church,  that  "  only  three  of  said  per- 
sons were  so  at  that  time."  As  to  the  three,  the  church 
would  give  no  "  light  on  the  subject "  as  to  the  grounds  of 
their  censure,  excepting  that ''  they  had  used  their  Chris- 
tian liberty  in  joining  said  society,"  and  "after  mature 
consideration  they  were  received  as  a  regular  Presbyterian 
station."  "After  careful  and  judicious  investigation,  they 
state,  they  ought  to  be  considered  to  be  in  good  standing 
in  the  Church  of  Christ."  A  caution  was  then  given  to 
them  as  a  society  "  to  cultivate  harmony  with  our  Congre- 
gational brethren ;  to  be  cautious  in  receiving  any  mem- 
bers, unless  to  occasional  communion,  who  are  not  of  the 
Presbyterian  persuasion ;  and  especially  to  reject  all  whose 
moral  character  is  such  as  to  bring  discredit  on  religion  in 
general  or  to  the  Presbyterian  interest  in  particular."  A 
copy  of  this  minute  was  ordered  to  be  served  on  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Chaplin,  minister  of  the  town. 

As  Dr.  Whittaker  was  now  walking  in  trouble  arising 
from  slanders,  his  case  at  this  time  received  an  extensive 
investigation,  the  results  of  which  were  favorable  to  his 
Christian  standing.  In  the  meantime.  Presbytery  "  called 
upon  all  who  have  reported  scandalous  stories  respecting 
him  to  give  regular  and  authentic  testimony  of  his  im- 
moral behavior  to  the  Presbytery,"  at  a  time  and  place 
then  appointed. 

The  Moderator  was  now  ordered  to  exhort  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Merrill  to  watchfulness  in  his  conduct  for  the  future. 

At  this  meeting  at  Groton,  June  11th,  1784,  a  letter 
which  Dr.  Whittaker  wrote  to  the  Rev.  R.  Annan  was  read, 
as  was  also  their  minute,  previously  noticed,  respecting  the 
dismission  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Taggart  while  negotiations  for 
a  union  of  the  two  bodies  was  pending ;  and  they  conclude 
the  matter  at  this  time  by  expressions  of  good-will  and  an 
earnest  desire  for  a  union  with  the  Associate  Reformed 
Preshytery  of  New  York.  This  Presbytery  has  also  a  New 
England  history,  which  will  in  due  time  appear. 

Another  matter  then  received  ofl&cial  attention.  It  was 
14 


210  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

a  difficulty  which  had  arisen  between  the  Rev.  Alex.  Mc- 
Lean and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Urquhart.  The  latter,  as  we  have 
seen,  leaving  his  wife  in  Scotland,  and  hearing  that  she 
was  dead,  had  married  another.  A  letter  from  the  true 
wife,  addressed  to  his  care,  Mr.  McLean  had  shewn  to  the 
American  wife  before  he  gave  it  to  Mr.  Urquhart.  In  his 
resentment  his  letters  and  expressions  he  had  "  not 
kept  within  the  rules  of  tenderness,"  "and  we  heartily 
recommend  it  to  them  both  to  express  their  forgiveness  to 
each  other  for  any  imprudences  the  hour  of  temptation 
may  have  produced,  and  resolve  to  bury  all,  and  embrace 
each  other  in  the  arms  of  cordial  friendship.  We  find 
nothing  but  what  may  have  been  the  effect  of  incaution 
and  infirmity."  This  was  voted  by  the  Presbytery,  and 
acquiesced  in  by  both  parties. 

Concerning  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Salem,  of  whom 
a  part  had  called  in  a  Congregational  council  to  judge  in 
their  quarrel  with  Dr.  Whittaker,  the  Presbytery  say,  "  We 
with  abhorrence  detest  and  cannot  but  lament,  that  an- 
other denomination  of  Christians,  in  these  free  States, 
should  claim  authority  and  jurisdiction  over  us  Presbyte- 
rians, who  have  behaved  peaceably  and  lived  in  love  with 
our  Congregational  brethren." 

"That,  as  said  Council  was  wholly  preconstitutional, 
called  wholly  without  the  knowledge  of  Dr.  Whittaker, 
and  a  court  to  which  he  was  in  no  sense  subject  any  more 
than  to  a  court  of  Episcopalians,  his  refusing  to  be  heard 
and  tried  by  them  was  truly  commendable,  and  can  by  no 
means  bear  any  mark  of  contumacy." 

The  charge  was  brought  that  the  third  church,  Salem, 
was  Congregational  when  Whittaker  settled,  and  that  he 
brought  them  over  to  Presbyterianism.  This  was  strong 
language  in  reference  to  that  S3^stem,  which  "took  its  rise" 
in  that  very  town  on  August  6th,  1629.  As  "  an  old  smug- 
gler "  is  said  to  "  make  a  good  custom  house  search  officer," 
so  the  Doctor  knew  the  tactics  of  his  opponents.  This 
Presbytery  now  show,  that  said  congregation  was  ever 
deemed  a  Presbyterian  church  from  the  settlement  of  Dr. 
AV.  among  them  in  1769,  when  it  was  received  as  such  "by 
their  own  desire,  choice,  and  request,"  and  that  these 
charges  were  refuted  "  in  1774,  when  the  same  objections 
were  made  by  his  adversaries." 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  211 

The  society,  the  Parish  pewholders  connected  with  the 
church,  had  refused  to  admit  the  Doctor's  labors  since  the 
25th  of  March  hist,  and  after  a  long  consideration  of  the 
subject,  in  which  they  shew  that  he  had  labored  faithfully 
and  spent  much  of  his  private  substance  for  their  good, 
and  for  which  he  was  now,  by  the  genius  and  spirit  of  the 
State  religion,  receiving,  so  far  as  23artisan  feeling  could 
reach,  only  persecution.  The  Presbytery  exhorted  the 
Doctor  to  "  a  careful  search  why  the  Lord  was  now  con- 
tending with  him,"  and  to  watchfulness,  while  they  recom- 
mended him  to  the  churches  as  a  ''  worthy  minister  of 
Christ." 

The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Merrill  was  now  proceeding  from 
bad  to  worse,  by  lying  and  in  view  of  scandalous  stories, 
beside  reading  a  paper  before  Presbytery,  advocating  his 
idea  that  vox  populi  est  vox  Del — "  the  voice  of  the  people  is 
the  voice  of  God,"  and  he  was  by  them  suspended  from 
his  ministry  till  the  next  session  of  the  court. 

The  Rev.  Alexander  McLean,  "  on  account  of  some  pecu- 
liar circumstances  of  his  people,"  now  asked  and  very  re- 
luctantly obtained  a  dismission,  Presbytery  "  hoping  that 
a  way  may  soon  be  opened  for  his  union  with  us  again." 

At  Gra}^,  in  Maine,  four  ministers  met  (while  six  were 
absent),  and  the  church  in  that  town  having  adopted  the 
Presbyterian  plan  of  church  government,  sought  union  and 
was  admitted  under  the  care  of  Presbytery  on  September 
8th,  1784.  "A  call  from  the  town  for  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Perley  was  presented,  and  considering  the  whole  of  the 
votes  of  the  church  and  the  tow^n,  the  Presbj^tery  advise 
him  to  accept  their  call."  Before  his  installation,  which 
took  place  on  the  same  day,  the  town  were  called  upon  to 
object,  and  "  only  hve  who  call  themselves  Baptists  lifted 
up  their  hands  against  it."  "  The  service  was  concluded 
with  prayer  and  a  psalm." 

"  Ordered,  That  Dr.  Whittaker  write  a  consolatory  letter 
to  the  congregation  in  Groton  and  appoint  Mr.  Strickland 
to  preach  to  them  as  often  as  he  can." 

About  forty  heads  of  families  in  New  Gloucester,  Maine, 
now  petition  to  be  received,  and  Dr.  Whittaker  was  ap- 
pointed to  write  to  the  Rev.  Samuel  Foxcraft  of  that  town 
to  learn  if  the  way  be  clear.  All  means  having  failed  with 
the  twenty  malcontents  in  Salem  to  re-establish  peace  be- 


212  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTKRIANISM 

tween  them  and  Dr.  Whittaker,  a  few  "  unreasonable,"  if 
not  "  wicked  men,"  being  often  able  to  pull  down  what 
they  could  not  build,  and,  in  the  spirit  of  Diotrephes, 
being  willing  "  to  rule  in  hell  rather  than  serve  in  heaven," 
the  Presbytery  now  dissolved  the  pastoral  relation,  which 
had  subsisted  for  fifteen  years. 

A  petition  was  now  "  received  from  the  Plantation  of 
Canaan  on  Kennebec  river,"  in  answer  to  which  the  Pres- 
bytery received  them,  and  afterwards,  at  their  request, 
over  them  as  their  pastor,  settled  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  \\liit- 
taker,  D.  D.,  on  September  15th,  1784.  He  had  (in  his 
case)  realized  the  term  Salem  to  be  a  misnomer.  He  was 
"  for  peace,"  but  the  twenty  were  "  keen  for  battle."  Re- 
moving from  the  vicinity  of  "  Gallows  Hill,"  he  found  in 
the  wilderness  of  Maine,  what  he  could  not  realize  in 
Numkeag,  even  after  its  inhabitants  had  for  a  century  and 
a  half  enjoyed  the  civilization  introduced  by  Skelton,  Hig- 
ginson  and  Williams  as  reformers  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. 

As  settlements  were  annually  forming  in  the  wilderness 
by  people,  not  a  fcw  of  whom  were  brought  up  Presbyte- 
rians, so,  from  these  new  towns  ap])lication  was  at  times 
made  to  have  Presbyterian  ecclesiastical  connection.^  Thus, 
*'  the  church  and  congregation  of  a  plantation,  then  called 
Sylvester,  had  voted  unanimously  to  accept  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  Discipline,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Strickland  at 
their  request  gathered  them  as  an  organization  with  ruling 
elders,  and  he  now  desires  the  approbation  of  this  body." 

"  Voted,  That  the  said  measure  is  approved." 

The  town  not  yet  incorporated,  and  having  some  public 
incumbrances  when  a  call  was  presented  to  Mr.  Strickland, 
the  Presbytery  advise  him  and  his  peoj)le,  as  their  circum- 
stances may  change,  to  submit  their  matters  to  its  jurisdic- 
tion, and  while  the  sum  voted  (fifty  pounds)  was  small,  it 
"  ought  to  be  increased  as  their  ability  shall  increase."  To 
this  they  mutually  agreed  before  his  installation,  which 
took  place  on  September  20th,  1784. 

While  this  settlement  was  unanimous,  the  people  had 
considerations  of  their  own  to  which  they  required  atten- 
tion. According  to  Congregational  polity,  the  people  could 
at  any  time  dismiss  a  minister,  especially  by  the  advice 
of  a  council ;  but  these  people  saw  that  at  times  the  Pres- 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  213 

bytery  could  and  would  remove  a  pastor  when  hig  charge 
were  anxious  to  have  him  continue,  as  had  been  done  at 
Boothbay  by  another  Presbytery.  Hence,  some  of  the  peo- 
ple at  Sylvester  had  "  some  difficulty  in  their  minds  with 
respect  to  his  removal  from  them  by  the  Presbyter3^'^ 
These  he  removed,  by  stating  that  he  had  "  not  known  an 
instance  in  his  Presbytery,"  and  by  engaging  never  to  ''re- 
move from  this  congregation  as  long  as  it  appears  that  I 
am  useful  as  a  minister,  and  this  people  fulfil  their  con- 
tract with  me."  Neither  the  "  hay-fever,"  the  "  minister's 
sickness,"  nor  the  "  louder  call,"  could  draw  him  from  a 
confiding,  afi'ectionate  and  dutiful  people.  This  was  credita- 
ble to  both  parties. 

As  the  Rev.  Mr.  Foxcraft  was  requested  to  give  light  on 
the  affairs  of  New  Gloucester,  he,  with  two  of  his  people, 
now  appeared  before  Presbytery,  where  matters  of  dispute 
were  heard,  and  judgment  rendered  thus : 

"  We  cannot  but  fear  that  many  have  treated  Mr.  Fox- 
craft  unkindly,  and  could  heartily  wish  that  the  disaffected 
could  sit  quietly  and  profit  under  him. 

"  But  as  a  large  number  profess  that  they  cannot  profit 
by  his  ministry,  and  that,  on  close  attention  to  the  subject, 
they  are  conscientiously  Presbyterians :  therefore  we  can- 
not say  that  it  is  their  duty  to  act  contrary  to  their  judg- 
ment, but  declare  that  they,  as  all,  have  liberty  to  worship 
God  agreeably  to  their  own  consciences  wherever  they  have 
opportunity.  We  wish  that  said  disaffected  could  profita- 
bly unite  with  the  rest  of  the  town  in  settling  a  minister 
agreeably  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Foxcraft's  proposal.  But,  if  they 
cannot,  we  recommend  them  to  wait  on  God,  and  be  much 
in  prayer  for  light  and  direction,  and  seek  for  a  regular 
incorporation,  that  they  may  be  in  a  capacity  to  suppctft 
the  gospel  among  them." 

They  then  exhort  them  to  avoid  ''  vain  janglings,"  study 
the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  town,  and  be  steadfast  in 
doctrine. 

At  a  meeting  held  at  Sylvester,  June  1st,  1785,  at  his 
own  request,  the  Rev.  John  Houston  was  dismissed  and 
recommended  to  the  churches ;  and  so  also  was  the  church 
and  congregation  in  Groton.  The  Presbytery  being  now 
seemingly  in  the  humor,  also  dismissed  and  gave  a  gen- 
eral recommendation  to  the  Rjev.  Mr.  Taggart  and  the 
church  of  Coleraine. 


214  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

"  Voted,  That  the  minute  made  in  1775  at  Newburyport, 
relating  to  uniformity,  be  recommended  to  the  several  con- 
gregations under  our  care." 

At  Topsham,  September  7th,  1785,  a  call  was  presented 
from  Number  Six  Westward,  and  Number  One  Eastward 
of  Union  River,  in  Lincoln  county,  for  the  settlement  of 
the  Rev.  John  Urquhart,  A.  M.,  in  the  gospel  ministry 
among  them,  and  desiring  annexation  to  this  body.  Tliey 
were  received.  He  was  dismissed  from  Topsham  and  forth- 
with settled  at  Union  River.  "  Ordered,  to  read  the  con- 
stitution." The  delinquents,  Williams  and  Merrill,  were 
to  be  again  cited  to  appear. 

The  Presbytery  of  Sakm  met  at  Gray,  June  21st,  1786. 
Present — Rev.  S.  Perley  and  John  Strickland,  Elder  John 
Keen.  Absent— Whittaker,  Baldwin,  Williams,  Merrill, 
Gilmore  and  Benjamin  Balch,  witli  Miltimore,  their  candi- 
date.    After  prayer  the  following  minute  is  recorded  : 

"W^hereas  most  of  the  members  of  the  Presbytery  are 
absent,  and  there  being  no  business  of  importance  to  be 
transacted  in  it :  Voted,  therefore,  that  this  meeting  be  ad- 
journed Sine  die.''^ 

The  pressure  of  their  surroundings  brought  the  members 
of  this  Salem  Presbytery,  who  now  seem  only  to  have  "a 
name  to  live  "  partly  in  two  years,  to  their  senses,  and  in 
response  to  a  call  of  the  moderator,  a  meeting  was  held  at 
Turner,  the  charge  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Strickland,  on  August 
loth,  1788.  Present — Perley  and  Strickland  with  three 
elders. 

"  Voted,  To  send  a  consolatory  letter  to  the  people  of 
Number  Six  and  One  on  Union  River." 

This  will  be  explained  under  the  notice  of  their  meeting 
at  Gray,  on  January  15th,  1789.  There  and  then  Captain 
Matthew  Patton  tabled  the  charge  "  of  a  design  to  deceive  " 
against  the  Rev.  John  Urquhart,  in  saying,  in  a  letter  to 
his  wife,  six  days  before  his  installation,  "that  he  was 
obliged  to  go,  but  he  knew  not  where,  and  therefore  could 
not  inform  her  where  to  direct  a  letter  to  him.  That  he 
has  two  wives,  and  will  not  receive  his  lawful  wife,  but 
keeps  a  concubine.  Also  to  answer  to  said  Patton 's  in- 
sinuation of  forgery  of  the  letter  informing  of  the  death  of 
his  first  wife." 

Mr.  Patton  was  duly  "  cited  to  appear  at  the  next  stated 


IN  NEW  j:ngland.  215 

session  to  sustain  the  above  charges  taken  from  his  letter 
to  the  Presbytery  of  September  8th,  1788."  Mr.  Perley, 
of  Gray,  was  absent  at  the  meeting  in  his  church,  on  Jan- 
uary 15th,  and  his  congregation  made  then  no  preparation 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  Presbytery,  who  now,  while 
they  excuse  him  for  absence,  "  think  him  truly  faulty  in 
not  notifying  the  members,  and  not  making  some  provi- 
sion for  their  accommodation  in  his  absence." 

Neither  pastor  nor  people  seem  to  have  been  "given  to 
hospitality."  They  were  not  j)ermeated  with  this  Scotch- 
Irish  grace. 

We  again  and  already  find  Dr.  Whittaker  in  trouble 
with  a  Mr.  Wm.  Steward,  and  the  Presbytery  appoint  a 
meeting  on  the  12th  of  March,  1789,  in  Canaan,  for  inves- 
tigation. Resort  is  again  had  (perhaps  necessarily  now, 
owing  to  the  paucity  of  members)  to  expediency,  to  ask 
two  Congregational  ministers  to  sit  with  the  Presbytery 
(among  these  the  Rev.  Alex.  McLean,  of  Bristol).  Cita- 
tions are  issued  for  the  second  Thursday  of  February, 
1790,  but  here  the  minutes  become  defective — they  do  not 
record  the  result. 

At  Gray,  January  15th,  1789,  citations  were  issued  in 
the  case  of  Urquhart,  both  to  him  and  his  accuser.  Captain 
Matthew  Patton,  to  appear  before  Presb3^tery  at  Winthrop, 
on  the  first  Thursday  of  October,  1789,  at  which  place  and 
time  Presbytery  met.  Present,  Whittaker,  Perley,  and 
Strickland,  with  Elders  Peter  Heywood,  Esq.,  and  John 
Keen;  absent,  Baldwin,  Williams,  Merrill,  Balch,  Milti- 
more,  and  Gilmore,  with  their  elders.  We  have  previously 
noticed  the  Rev.  George  Gilmore.  When  a  licentiate  he 
landed  in  Philadelphia  on  September  9th,  1769.  For 
nearly  four  years  he  supplied  in  diff'erent  places  (it  is  be- 
lieved) in  Congregational  vacancies  as  well  as  in  Presb}^- 
terian  pulpits,  and  while  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
sufficiently  attractive  to  have  obtained  a  call,  yet  the  Bos- 
ton Presbytery  ordained  him  on  Ma}^  26th,  1773.  Of  it 
he  continued  a  member  until  the  formation  of  the  Synod 
in  1775,  when,  residing  (as  is  supposed)  in  Voluntown, 
Conn.,  he  was  allotted  to  the  Presbytery  of  Palmer. 

At  the  dissolution  of  the  Synod,  on  September  12th, 
1782,  his  name  remained  on  the  reunited  roll,  and  under 
its  change  of  name  to  the  Presbytery  of  Salem,  and  they 


216  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

record,  on  October  1st,  1789,  "As  the  Rev.  Geo.  Gilmore 
has  been  long  absent  from  this  body,  and  we  not  knowing 
where  he  is,  the  Presbytery  conchide  to  drop  him  out  of 
their  list." 

As  the  war  of  the  Revolution  approached,  being  loyal  to 
Great  Britain,  he  with  great  difficulty  and  much  loss  es- 
caped to  Canada.  As  Presbyterianism  had  not  as  yet  any 
existence  in  the  Provinces  then  of  that  name,  excepting  a 
mere  commencement  in  Montreal,  so  in  due  time  he 
reached  Nova  Scotia.  There  he  was  welcomed  and  useful. 
He  for  many  years  officiated  at  Newport,  and  he  there 
died.  Some  of  his  posterity,  it  is  believed,  were  persons 
of  much  moral  worth. 

The  Rev.  Simon  Williams,  having  years  ago  withdrawn 
and  been  censured,  he  was  at  this  meeting  "  adjudged 
guilty  of  wilful  contumacy,  cut  off  and  excommunicated 
from  this  body." 

Not  only  so,  Nathaniel  Merrill  had  for  five  years  spurned 
the  citations  and  despised  the  authority  of  Presbytery,  and 
in  his  "  moral  character  becoming  more  and  more  infamous 
and  utterly  unworthy  of  the  sacred  office.  Therefore,  this 
Presbytery  depose  him  from  liis  ministerial  office,  and  ex- 
communicate him  from  their  body  and  their  Christian 
communion."  _ 

This  was  indeed  a  sorrowful  exhibit. 

We  come  now  to  the  final  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Salem  at  Gray,  on  the  14th  of  September,  1791.  Members 
present.  Revs.  Dr.  Whittaker,  Samuel  Perley,  and  John 
Strickland ;  absent,  Baldwin,  Balch,  and  Miltimore,  with 
their  elders.  Opened  as  usual  with  jorayer.  Mr.  Perley, 
Moderator,  and  Mr.  Strickland,  clerk. 

"  Taking  into  consideration  the  state  of  matters  between 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Perley  and  the  church  and  congregation 
of  the  town  of  Gray,  and  having  examined  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  church  and  peoi)le,  and  finding  nothing  exhib- 
ited by  any  against  the  Rev.  Mr.  Perley,  either  as  a  Chris- 
tian or  a  minister  of  Christ,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  the 
Presbyterian  church  at  Gray  have  recommended  him  as 
faithful,  and  with  reluctance  consent  to  his  dismission  from 
them — to  which,  they  say,  they  are  necessitated  by  a  divi- 
sion of  the  town  by  an  act  of  the  general  Court  of  this 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  217 

Commonwealth,  find  cheerfully  submit  to  this  Presbytery 
the  time  and  manner  of  his  dismission. 

"  The  Presbytery,  hoping  that  events  may  so  occur  that 
the  church  and  congregation  at  Gray  may  yet  continue 
him  as  their  pastor,  judge  it  best  not  to  proceed  to  dismiss 
him  immediately,  but  still  continue  him  tliere  for  further 
trial,  and  then  leave  it  to  the  judgment  of  the  parties  to 
say  when  he  shall  be  dismissed,  unless  some  difficulty 
should  arise  which  may  require  the  presence  of  the  Pres- 
bytery. 

"  They  now  recommend  Mr.  Perley  as  an  able  and  faith- 
ful minister  of  the  gospel  in  good  standing,  and  then  earn- 
estly recommend  this  church  and  people  to  use  their  best 
endeavors  for  Christian  love  and  union  for  the  continuance 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Perley. 

^^Gray,  September  14th,  1791.  The  Presbytery  adjourned 
sine  die.     Concluded  by  pra^-er. 

(Signed)  "  John  Strickland,  Presby.  Clerk." 

We  thus  see  the  development  of  Presbyterianism  from 
1718  till  1791  in  part.  The  original  "  Irish  "  Presbytery 
of  Londonderry  became  extinct  about  1765.  We  "have 
now  seen  the  growth,  vitality,  and  decay  of  the  second 
Presby ter}^  commenced  in  1745,  forming  a  Synod  with 
three  Presbyteries  for  seven  3^ears  and  three  months,  and 
dwindling  down  under  the  title  of  the  Presbytery  of  Salem 
until  it  finally,  after  a  life  of  forty-six  years,  expired  at 
Gray  in  Maine,  and  we  now  return  to  "  the  Presbytery  at 
the  Eastward." 


/7->  ^ 


218  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 


t<^^>-^ 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1768-1793— One  man— Vamped— "Woolers"— Ordered— The  doctrine 
— Cobbisuente — The  Banner  Church-^Davidson  alone — Williams  asks 
aid  to  allay  Parish  difficulties — A  place  of  ecclesiastical  refuge — Four 
aided  by  a  Burse  at  Dartmouth — Good  men  formerly  came  to  aid — Eliot 
— His  mantle — Indian  school — Occuiu  a  Mohegan — A  College — Com- 
mittee, a  letter  of,  to  the  Board — For  comparison  with — A  reply — To 
remit  entirely  the  fees — Auspicious  rays — Rev.  John  Hubbard — Sol. 
Moore  of  New  Boston — Messrs,  Annan  and  W.  Morrison  invited  to  sit 
— A  colleague  for  Mr.  Davidson  asked — White  Creek,  New  York — 
Cambridge,  N.Y. — Miltimore — A.  R.  Presbytery — Four  observations — 
Prorenata — West  of  the  Green  Mountains — Since  the  War — Tendencies 
— Free  will — Universalism — Rellyite  John  Murray — In  New  Hamp- 
shire in  1773 — Measuresofhell — Testimony  emitted — BathKol — Deism 
— Family  worship  a  stranger — Sot's  holes — A  cold  state  shewn — Twelve 
years,  1771-1783 — A  wide  field — Eliot  saw  twenty-four  Indian  ministers 
— For  AVitchcraft  nineteen — Revival  1739-44 — Arminianism  now  re- 
spectable— Individuals  in  Newburyport  did  not  believe  the  perpetuity 
— Pastor  and  session  of  Newburyport  approved — Actual  reformation — 
Presbyterial  visitations — Rules — An  account — Advantages  of  it — 
Learn  to  sustain — Such  duty  has  the  promise. 

This  Presbytery  obtained  its  vitality  from  one  man,  as 
our  modern  "  Reformed  Protestant  Episcopalians "  in 
America  obtained  through  a  lineal  ecclesiastical  descend- 
ant of  John  Wesley,  who,  through  a  bishop  of  the  Greek 
Church  (according  to  Toplady),  received  the  thread  of 
apostolical  succession,  and  have  had  it  vamped  with  regu- 
lar prelatic  ordination  given  to  him  in  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  United  States ;  so  John  Murra}^,  ob- 
taining his  ministerial  standing  from  the  "  Class  at  Wooler  " 
(whoever  they  were),  and  having  it  vamped  by  a  regular 
Presbyterial  ordination  in  Philadelphia  (though  on  forged 
papers,  as  was  supposed),  became,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
father  and  vitalizing  force  of  this  Presbytery. 

It  was  erected  at  Boothbay,  in  Maine,  on  June  27th, 
1771.  At  its  first  adjourned  meeting,  September  17th, 
1771,  at  Brunswick,  "  Ordered,  that  the  doctrines  of  the 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  219 

Confession  of  Faith  be  discussed  in  their  order."  This 
was  a  wise  beginning,  for  the  doctrine  is  that  which  saves 
or  damns  the  soul.  It  is  all  important  to  know  "  the  doc- 
trine of  God  our  Saviour,"  and  to  be  able  to  detect  "  doc- 
trines of  devils  "  where  they  exist.  Hence  the  Divine  in- 
junction, "  Take  heed  to  the  doctrine,  for  by  so  doing  thou 
shalt  both  save  thyself  and  them  that  hear  thee." 

Euphonious  names  of  aboriginal  origin  are  not  unfre- 
quent  even  now  "  down  East,"  and  their  minutes  then  pre- 
sent one  :  "As  a  commissioner  has  come  from  Cobbisuente, 
we  each  give  them  one  day's  sermon."     This  was  well. 

We  have  previously  seen  the  desolation  of  Booth  bay  by 
the  translation  of  Mr.  Murray  to  Newburyport,  which  now 
formed  the  Banner  Church  of  the  Presbytery,  and  we  find 
that  the  Rev.  Wm.  Davidson,  who  had  been  settled  in  Derry 
in  1739,  was  now  alone.  Belonging  to  the  Presbytery 
which  had  suspended  Moorehead  and  McGregor,  he  could 
not  recognize  the  court  which  they  were  instrumental  in 
erecting,  and  now,  in  1781,  he  seeks  admission  to  "the 
Presbytery  at  the  Eastward."  Of  it  a  meeting  pro  re  nata 
was  held  in  Derry  on  October  23d,  when  the  Rev.  Solomon 
Moore,  of  New  Boston,  and  the  Rev.  S.  Williams,  of  Wind- 
ham, were  invited  to  sit  as  correspondents ;  and  "  the  Rev. 
William  Davidson  stated  that  he  had  been  ordained  by  a 
Presbytery,  had  for  many  years  been  pastor  of  his  present 
charge,  and  a  member  of  the  Presb3^tery  of  Londonderry, 
which  had  been  dissolved  by  removal  and  death  of  its 
members,"  and  that  he  was  then  unconnected  with  any 
ecclesiastical  judicatory.  He  (Avith  his  elder,  Moses  Bar- 
nett,  and  the  church  and  congregation  by  them  repre- 
sented) was  now  officially  admitted. 

The  Rev.  S.  Williams  "  made  a  statement  of  difficulties 
existing  in  his  congregation  in  Windham,  and  he  requests 
some  of  the  members  of  this  Presbytery  to  attend  his  Pres- 
bytery at  Windham  on  the  14th  of  next  month." 

The  Synod  of  New  England  still  existed,  and  his  would 
be  the  Londonderry  Presbytery,  probably  so  far  reduced 
in  its  working  force  as  to  be  unable  to  allay  human  pas- 
sions when  in  vigorous  connnotion.  How  far  the  request 
was  granted  does  not  appear. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Long  Lane  congregation  had 
entered  their  "  declinature  "  and  stood  upon  it^  while  some 


220  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

thirty  persons  of  a  minority  continued  to  be  subject  to  the 
Presbytery,  and  it  was  now  "  Ordered,  That  if  they  should 
desire  it,  Mr.  Murray  has  permission  to  transmit  applica- 
tions from  them  to  any  minister  they  may  have  in  view, 
or  to  any  Presbytery  to  which  such  minister  may  belong, 
in  regular  manner  and  form,  as  by  the  appointment  and 
consent  of  this  Presbytery." 

On  June  14th  it  was  reported  to  Presbytery  that  the 
Rev.  John  Murray  had  been  settled  as  pastor  in  Newbury- 
port,  on  June  4th,  1781 ;  and  on  October  1st,  1782,  at  Derr'y, 
the  Rev.  Simon  Williams  gave  liis  version  of  his  declining 
the  authority  of  the  Synod  of  New  England,  for  "  various 
illegal  steps  which  they  had  taken,"  and  under  the  shadow 
of  this  Presbytery  as  a  place  of  ecclesiastical  refuge,  he 
(with  his  congregation)  and  Mr.  James  Miltimore  and 
Joseph  McKeen,  candidates,  now  placed  themselves. 

On  the  original  "  Formula  of  the  First  Presbytery  of  the 
Eastward,"  their  names  were  at  that  date  duly  enrolled. 

These  two  young  men,  with  the  two  sons,  Gilbert  Tennant 
and  Simon  Finlay,  of  the  Rev.  Simon  Williams,  had  en- 
joyed, or  were  then  enjoying,  the  aid  each  of  a  Burse  at 
Dartmouth  College.  This  was  one  of  the  ways  in  which 
the  ever-active  mind  of  the  Rev.  John  Murray  was  for 
years  engaged.  Whether  he,  after  graduating  at  Edin- 
burgh, had  felt  himself  deficient  in  relation  to  a  full  course 
of  study  or  not,  he  knew  that  the  office  of  a  Presbyterian 
minister  would  not  be  honored,  if  he  were  not  abreast  of 
all  men  in  the  other  professions. 

This  was  a  grievous  drawback  to  the  spread,  support 
and  perpetuity  of  the  truth  as  contained  in  their  "  form  of 
sound  words  "  in  New  England. 

Good  men  came  in  the  first  and  earlier  emigrations  to 
them  to  labor  in  the  work  of  the  ministry,  but,  in  time, 
defective  characters,  such  as  John  Morrison  and  Urquhart, 
polluted  their  ministry. 

Dartmouth  College,  as  noticed,  was,  in  its  early  stages 
of  existence,  said  to  be  essentially  Presbyterian. 

Soon  after  the  settlement  of  New  England,  the  immortal 
Eliot  was  blessed,  as  an  instrumentality  in  the  hand  of 
Christ,  in  turning  many  of  the  dusky  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  forest  "  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the  power 
of  Satan  unto  God,"  and  when  "  taken  U]),"  his  mantle  fell 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  221 

upon  others.  Among  these  was,  after  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  John  Sargeant.  He  labored  among 
the  Stockbridge  tribe,  and  knowing,  by  abundant  observa- 
tion, that  "  for  the  soul  to  be  without  knowledge  was  not 
good,"  he  aimed  at  diffusing  useful,  but  especially  saving 
knowledge  among  his  Indians.  Out  of  his  Indian  school 
.  sprang  up  a  college.  Among  his  pupils,  Sampson  Occum, 
a  Mohegan,  obtained  a  standing  in  the  Christian  ministry, 
and,  in  appealing  to  generous  stewards  of  his  Master's 
goods,  he,  with  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Whittaker,  went  to 
Great  Britain  about  176G. 

(In  1767  the  University  of  St.  Andrews  gave  to  Whit- 
taker the  degree  of  Doctor  in  Divinity). 

The  novelty  of  the  appearance  of  Occum,  his  ability, 
earnestness  and  the  interests  of  his  race,  excited  the  atten- 
tion of  many  benevolent  persons,  who  were  willing  to 
"  honor  the  Lord  with  their  substance  "  until  his  "  mis- 
sionary school "  obtained  the  means  to  take  rank  as  a  col- 
lege. Not  only  the  common  people,  but  some  of  those  of 
rank,  vied  in  the  enterprise,  and  as  Lord  Dartmouth  gave 
for  the  purpose  the  most  munificent  sum,  the  town  of 
Hanover,  N.  H.,  was  honored  and  much  of  New  England 
blessed  by  the  founding  of  Dartmouth  College  there  in 
1769.  The  man  for  the  place,  the  first  president,  was  the 
~  Kev.  Eleazer  Wheelock ;  succeeded  during  the  first  century 
by  his  brother,  by  Brown,  Dana,  Tyler  and  Lord,  the  in- 
stitution has  become  an  eminent  "  success,"  and  is  "  not  a 
whit  behind  "  any  other  seminary  in  the  land  in  develop- 
ing mind  and  making  men  useful.  Others  there  are  on 
•which  funds  are  more  extensively  heaped,  but  few,  if  any, 
can  be  named  where  reputation,  during  the  perilous  years 
of  college  life,  is  more  safe,  or  future  usefulness,  on  the 
average,  more  extensively  secured.  Though  only  and 
always  a  college,  the  names  of  Webster  and  Choate,  among 
her  graduates,  are  names  of  which  any  universit}^  would 
feel  proud.  Many  of  the  early  friends  of  this  seat  of  learn- 
ing were  Presbyterians,  and  to  it,  among  the  others,  "  the 
Presbytery  at  the  Eastward  "  looked  for  an  increase  in  the 
gospel  ministry  by  forming  Burses. 

Paper  after  paper  and  letter  after  letter  from  the  prolific 
pen  of  Murray  testify  this. 

In  February,  1784,  a  committee  of  the  Presbytery  wrote 


222  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

to  the  "  Honorable  Board  and  Immediate  Governors  of  the 

Institution." 

To  this  a  favorable  reply  was  in  due  time  obtained. 

"  Impressed  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  obligation  con- 
ferred upon  us  by  the  pious  and  generous  proposal  of  the 
worthy  patrons  of  the  cause  of  religion  and  literature 
which  you  have  so  politely  communicated:  The  Pres- 
bytery entertained  the  enclosed  resolutions  on  their 
records  as  a  perpetual  monument  of  the  charity  and 
pious  zeal  of  the  university  over  which  you  worthily 
preside. 

"  We  were  not  a  little  animated  by  the  generous  engage- 
ment of  the  Board,  and  authority  to  remit  entirely  the 
fees  and  tuition  money  of  such  Bursar  as  at  any  time  might 
be  sent  by  us  for  education  to  that  highly  favored  fountain 
of  learning. 

"  Long  may  the  seminary  under  your  care  flourish  by 
those  auspicious  rays  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness  which 
have  hitherto  distinguished  it  as  the  favorite  plantation  of 
the  Divine  husbandry.  , 

"The  Hon.  President  Wpieelock." 

It  will  be  thus  seen  that  not  only  Grafton  Presbytery, 
but  also  the  Presbytery  at  the  Eastward,  had  a  deep  inter- 
est in  Dartmouth  College. 

As  a  matter  of  courtesy,  the  Presbytery  at  Windham, 
on  October  22d,  1782,  invited  the  elders  from  Bedford  and 
Goffstown,  then  present,  to  sit  as  correspondents,  and  on 
May  20th,  1783,  the  elder  from  the  latter  place  presented  a 
commission  from  a  Presbyterian  society  there  and  was  re- 
ceived. 

Other  congregations  continued  to  come  to  Presbyterian- 
ism,  and  on  the  same  day  the  Rev.  John  Hubbard  and 
Mr.  Thos.  Tewksbury  as  an  elder  presented  their  constitu- 
tion as  a  Presbyterian  society. 

The  Rev.  Solomon  Moore  and  William  Moore,  his  elder, 
of  New  Boston,  presented  themselves  to  this  Presbytery, 
and  were  received. 

"  Diligent  in  business,"  the  Presbytery  in  due  form,  after 
satisfactory  "  trials,"  licensed  Mr.  Joseph  McKeen  to  preach 
the  gospel. 

Nor  was  this  all.  At  this  May  meeting  they  were  vis- 
ited by  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Robert  and  David  Annan  and  Mr. 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  223 

William  Morrison  (to  be  subsequently  noticed),  who  were 
invited  to  sit  as  correspondents. 

On  October  8th,  1783,  at  Candia,  a  "petition  from  Deer 
Island  was  answered  in  a  friendly  manner."  Pastors  Wil- 
liams and  Davidson  were  appointed  to  baptize  children  at 
Dunbarton,  and  on  the  application  of  the  Rev.  John  Hub- 
bard and  members  of  his  society,  Presbytery  adjourned  to 
meet  in  Amesbury,  Mass.,  which  they  did  on  November 
13th,  when  the  first  parish  of  Londonderry  requested  a 
supply  as  a  colleague  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davidson,  when  a 
plan  for  forming  a  Burse  was  encouraged  by  the  Presby- 
tery, and  the  "  respectful  letter  to  the  authorities  of  Dart- 
mouth College  "  (inserted  above)  was  voted  to  be  sent. 

In  1784,  February  loth,  a  petition  was  received  from  the 
New  England  congregation  at  White  Creek,  New  York, 
praying  to  be  received,  and  to  devise  some  proper  way  to 
moderate  in  a  call,  and  to  this  the  Presbytery  sent  "  a 
challenge  to  shew  cause,  if  any,  why  the  prayer  of  the 
petition  should  not  be  granted  at  next  meeting."  • 

On  October  8th,  1783,  a  petition  had  been  received  from 
Cambridge,  New  York,  which,  when  "  considered  with  what 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Clark  wrote  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Murray 
respecting  that  affair,  the  Presbytery  sent  Mr.  James  Mil- 
timore  thither  some  Sabbaths.  If  his  preaching  there 
gave  offence  to  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery,  he 
must  return  to  this  Presbytery ;  and  we  cannot  allow  Mr. 
Miltimore  to  preach  at  White  Creek  either,  if  by  so  doing 
the  said  Presbytery  are  offended." 

Whether  they  were  offended  or  not",  preach  at  White 
Creek  he  did,  and  received  a  call,  which  he  subsequently 
declined. 

This  called  forth  an  urgent  letter  from  "  the  Hon.  I.  Wil- 
liams on  behalf  of  the  Trustees  of  the  New  England  con- 
gregation of  White  Creek,  praying  that  the  answer  of  Mr. 
Miltimore  be  revoked  and  that  he  be  sent  to  that  place." 

The  Presbytery  recorded  four  observations  anent  this 
letter :  1st.  That  they  had  used  no  influence  to  induce  him 
to  decline  their  call,  and  they  did  not  know  what  his 
answer  would  be  until  they  heard  it  in  judicature.  2d. 
They  had  reasons  to  believe  that  the  state  of  said  congre- 
gation and  its  connections  were  such  that  Miltimore  would 
have  given  the  same  answer  if  he  had  not  had  a  call  from 


224  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  Eastward.  3d.  That  the  Presbytery  had  no  reason  to 
revoke  his  answer  or  alter  their  judgment.  4th.  That  no 
reason  is  oft'ered  by  said  letter  why  they  should  do  so; 
therefore  they  do  not  '*  order  him  to  White  Creek." 

"  Mr.  Miltimore,  being  called  on  to  make  answer  to  that 
call,  replied,  that  he  had  very  seriously  and  prayerfully 
considered  that  same  throughout  the  season  past,  and 
viewed  himself  accountaljle  to  the  great  Head  of  the 
Church  for  the  result  of  his  deliberations  ;  but  that,  on  the 
whole,  according  to  the  best  light  he  had,  he  could  not  see 
it  to  be  his  duty  to  settle  tliere." 

At  a  previous  meeting,  the  congregation  of  Cambridge, 
N.  Y.,  if  their  circumstances  required  it,  in  connection 
with  the  preaching  of  Miltimore,  were  allowed  to  call  a 
pro  re  nata  meeting ;  and  at  ''  New  Boston,  Sei:)tember  8th, 
1784,  at  such  a  meeting,  Mr.  John  Morrison  appeared  as  a 
commissioner  from  Cambridge,  N.  Y.,  and  presenting  a 
copy  of  a  call,  requesting  Presbytery  to  sustain  it  and  pre- 
sent it  to  Mr.  Miltimore." 

"  Voted :  That  as  difficulties  subsist,  they  cannot  sustain 
the  same." 

What  these  difficulties  fully  were  does  not  clearly  appear, 
and  his  reply  in  declining  the  call  from  White  Creek  put 
a  termination  to  all  efforts  to  obtain  his  services  west  of 
the  Green  Mountains.  He  received,  September  8th,  1784, 
a  call  from  Deer  Island.  This  he  did  not  probably  accept, 
as  he  was  settled  at  Stratham,  N.  H.,  in  1786,  and  dis- 
missed in  October,  1807.  On  July  oOth,  1878,  the  town 
clerk  wrote :  "  I  do  not  find  any  record  of  the  settlement 
of  any  other  minister  since  the  said  Miltimore."  A  town 
without  a  pastor  for  seventy  years !  "  Tell  it  not  in 
Gath." 

As  we  have  seen,  for  years  it  was  their  practice  to  open 
their  stated  meetings  with  a  discourse  continuously  on  one 
of  the  chapters  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  by  a  member 
previously  appointed,  and  they  appear  for  several  years  to 
obey  the  injunction,  "  take  heed  to  the  doctrine."  Their 
surroundings  (as  stated)  were  suffering  much  morally 
since  the  war. 

The  State  churches  became  in  many  cases  less  careful 
about  the  doctrine,  the  elders  were  ignored  and  their  office 
dropped,  and  tendencies  were  running  from  a  theocracy 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  225 

vested  in  an  oligarchy  and  an  Athenian  democracy  to  an 
ecclesiastical  democracy.  While  Presbyterianism  was 
declining,  some  forms  of  Congregationalism  were  increas- 
ing. '( 

The  immersing  Congregationalists  (self-styled  Baptists) 
were  in  some  cases  diverging  from  their  former  Calvinism, 
and,  under  the'title  of  Freewill,  were  "  subverting  houses." 
When  thus  so  fiir  removed  from  a  belief  in  the  existence 
of  "  a  remnant  according  to  the  election  of  grace,"  as  to 
suppose,  with  Arminius,  "  That  Jesus  Christ,  by  his  suffer- 
ings and  death,  made  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  all  man- 
kind in  general  and  of  every  individual  in  particular ;  that, 
however,  none  but  those  who  believe  in  him  can  be  par- 
takers of  divine  benefits,"  it  would  not  do  violence  to  Con- 
gregational logic,  to  maintain,  That  "  if  Christ's  atonement 
is  of  such  value  as  to  save  all  men,  he  would  not  die  at  a 
venture,  but,  possessed  of  infinite  power,  he  would  save  all 
for  whom  he  died."  This,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
presumptuous  assertion  of  ignorance,  that  "  God  is  too 
good  to  make  any  man  to  damn  him,"  originated,  or,  at 
least,  helped  to  perfect  the  tenet,  that  "  as  Christ  died  for 
all,  so  before  he  shall  have  delivered  up  his  mediatorial 
kingdom  to  the  Father,  all  shall  be  brought  to  a  participa- 
tion of  the  benefits  of  his  death  in  their  restoration  to  holi- 
ness and  happiness." 

In  the  course  of  a  few  years  afterwards,  those  who  in 
England  associated  with  Morgan,  in  1729,  diverged,  Wes- 
ley propagating  the  opinions  of  Arminius,  Whitefield  those 
of  Calvin  in  relation  to  the  way  of  life,  and  James  Relly, 
upon  a  change  of  views,  maintained  "  that  Christ,  as  a 
Mediator,  Avas  so  united  to  mankind,  that  his  actions  were 
theirs,  his  obedience  and  sufferings  theirs,  and,  conse- 
quently, that  he  as  full}^  restored  the  whole  human  race 
to  the  divine  favor  as  if  all  had  obeyed  and  suffered  in 
their  own  persons."  About  the  middle  of  that  century  a 
Mr.  John  Murray,  belonging  to  Kelly's  society,  emigrated 
to  America  and  propagated  his  doctrines.  After  laboring 
some  time  in  New  Jersey,  he  first  preached  in  New  York 
in  1770.  He  soon  afterwards  visited  Boston  and  obtained 
a  kind  of  resting  place  for  his  opinions  in  Gloucester,  Mass. 
He  first  preached  Universalism  in  New  Hampshire  in  1773. 

This  new  type  of  Congregationalism,  that  is,  new  in  New 
15 


226  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

England  at  that  time,  as  soul-destroying  and  God-dishon- 
oring, the  Presbyterians  conscientiously  opposed,  and  on 
May  21st,  1783,  emitted  a  testimony  concerning  it.  Thus 
warning  their  people  of  danger,  which  liad  now  become 
the  more  insidious,  because  that  "the  Bay  State  Psahii- 
book  "  had  been  supplanted  among  the  CongregationaHsts 
and  many  of  the  Presbyterians,  especially  those  who  came 
from  Congregationalism,  had  become  enamored  with  the 
imitations  and  other  poetical  effusions  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Watts,  which,  with  a  breadth  and  a  depth  equal  to  all  tlie 
measures  of  hell,  maintained  that 

"  Christ  came  to  make  his  blessings  flow 
Far  as  the  curse  is  found." 

His  poetry  formed  a  rapid  diffusive  stimulant  for  "  divers 
and  strange  doctrines." 

To  counteract,  so  far  as  possible,  the  effects  of  the  doc- 
trine of  universal  solvation,  the  Presbytery  emitted  their 
Testimony,  with  what  salutary  effect  we  cannot  at  this  dis- 
tant period  of  time  determine.  It,  however,  showed  how 
they  endeavored  to  "  take  heed  to  the  flock." 

Reading  material  did  not  then  abound,  and  Presbyteri- 
ans in  New  England  did  not  often  employ  the  press  in 
that  generation.  The  almost  only  exception  was  a  publi- 
cation by  the  Presbytery,  an  amplification  of  their  testi- 
mony, under  a  peculiar  title  which  read  thus  : 

^^Bath  Kol,  a  voice  from  tlie  Avilderness.  Being  an  hum- 
ble attempt  to  support  tl;e  sinking  truths  of  God  against 
some  of  the  principal  errors  raging  at  this  time.  Or,  a 
joint  testimony  to  the  churches  under  their  care.  By  the 
Presbytery  of  the  Eastward,  Boston  :  N.  Coverl}^  1783." 

They  begin  with  Deism  and  Origenism  as  lying  nearest 
the  root  of  all  impiety  and  wickedness  now  leading  the 
fashions  in  places  of  public  resort.  Then  an  inquiry  into 
causes  which  have  brought  down  these  judgments  on  the 
church.  Next,  by  way  of  introduction,  they  state,  "that 
the  regard  for  rehgion  for  which  New  England  was  once 
distinguished,  has  now  vanished  from  among  us  in  a 
lamentable  degree.  We  have  suffered  eight  years  of  war, 
and  for  this  awful  calamity  there  are  moral  causes. 

"Never  was  the  public  worship  of  God  as  generally 
voted  away  as  at  the  present.     Many  grudging  the  ex- 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  227 

pense  of  supporting  it,  have  dismissed  God's  ambassadors 
and  locked  up  the  doors  of  his  house.  Others  have  ex- 
changed a  learned,  godly  ministry  for  ignorant  fanatical 
intruders,  merely  because  they  pretend  to  deal  out  to  them 
their  wild  and  indigested  effusions  without  salary,  while 
of  the  remainder  among  whom  their  ministers  still  make 
a  shift  to  continue,  the  greatest  number  seldom  attend,  and 
not  a  small  proportion  of  those  Avho  attend  pass  the  sacred 
hours  of  worship  in  sauntering,  gazing,  dozing  and  sneer- 
ing. Family  worship  is  a  stranger  to  the  dwellings  of 
thousands.  Sabbath  profanation  abounds  on  wharves,  in 
coffee-houses  and  in  sots'  holes,  and  the  answer  is :  *  'tis 
war  times.'  Country  youth  learn  profanation  on  board 
of  privateers  and  in  the  camps. 

"  Benevolence  is  not  cultivated  now.  Intemperance  sends 
man  below  the  brutal  herd.  Multitudes  of  men  each  year 
are  destroyed  by  it,  and  women  take  it  too. 

"Anti-nuptial  offences  are  almost  forgotten  to  be  a  crime. 
Adultery  increases ;  vile  books  are  printed  and  read  with 
avidity;  extortion,  theft,  fraud  and  lying  increasingly 
abound. 

"  It  is  in  view  of  this  alarming  state  of  things  among  us 
that  we  have  ventured  to  deliver  our  souls  in  the  follow- 
ing testimony,  and  to  that  step  we  judged  ourselves  bound 
at  this  time,  for  the  following  reasons.  Nothing  of  this 
kind  has  come  to  our  knowledge  from  any  quarter  in  the 
land — not  from  Presbyteries  and  Synods,  nor  associations 
and  conventions." 

These  "  reasons  "  show  a  lamentably  cold  state  of  zeal 
for  the  interests  of  godliness  when  none  among  professors 
of  religion,  and  they  were  then  in  the  land  nominally 
nearly  all  evangelical,  could  be  found  to  lift  up  their  voice 
in  warning  and  remonstrance. 

The  moral  sentiment  of  the  church  seems  to  have  fallen 
from  what  it  was  before  the  war,  when,  on  May  20th,  1771, 
the  Rev.  D.  McGregor,  at  Seabrook,  preached  from  Joel 
ii.  17. 

These  twelve  years,  from  1771  till  1783,  show  not  only 
the  effects  of  a  desolating  war,  but  also  the  worthlessness 
of  a  State  religion  in  supporting  godliness  and  good  morals. 
The  earlier  way  of  publicly  professing  faith  in  Christ  as 
"  the  Redeemer  of  God's  electa"  and  then  from  faith  in  him 


228  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

and  love  to  him,  "  living  soberly,  righteously  and  godly  "  as 
his  people,  had  now  measurably  passed  away.  Hence  the 
description  of  society  in  New  Enuland  here  given. 

In  their  Bath  Kol  (a  voice  from  the  wilderness)  the 
Presbytery  now  take  under  notice  a  wide  field,  from  which 
I  select  a  few  items,  such  as:  "Plymouth  colony  was 
erected  b}^  letters  patent  from  King  James  I.,  April  10th, 
1606,  for  the  pur|)0se  of  planting  and  ruling  the  territory 
(then  called  Northern  Virginiaj,  now  called  New  England, 
which  had  been  discovered  by  Bartholomew  Gosnold  on 
Ma}^  11th,  1602.  This  society  consisted  of  a  number  of 
nobility  and  gentry,  but  ibr  fourteen  years  gather  fish  and 
fur  was  all  they  did.  Money  was,  on  the  whole,  their 
object,  and  money  was  the  snare  in  which  their  scheme 
was  entangled  and  lost;  for  a  Caj^itain  Hunt,  in  their  em- 
ploy, carried  off  twenty-seven  Indians  and  sold  them  in 
Spain  for  £20  sterling  each.  This  immediately  broke  off 
their  commerce  with  the  Indians.  (P.  25.)  A  colony  of 
French  Protestants  went  to  Brazil  about  1670,  and  had 
seventy-five  ministers  from  Geneva,  but  they  failed. 

Eliot  saw  twenty-lour  Indian  congregations  with  twenty- 
four  Indian  ministers. 

The  Baptists  began  at  Swanzey  and  at  Boston  in  1665, 
and  were  condemned  by  a  Synod  in  1679.  Quakers  began 
in  1656. 

For  witchcraft  nineteen  were  executed  between  1648  and 
1692.     Revival  from  1739  till  1744. 

26th  of  January,  1744,  war  on  Louisburgh  was  carried 
by  one  of  a  majority  in  Boston  General  Court. 

From  these  and  various  other  topics,  a])parently  totally 
disconnected,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  "Mather's 
AVonder- Working  Providence,"  they  trace  a  connection  be- 
tween moral  wrong-doing  and  calamity  under  Divine 
providence,  and  state  that  "  ungodliness  had  now  been  in- 
creasing for  twenty  years,"  and  as  an  evidence,  if  not  a 
cause,  an  effect  of  it,  "Arminianism  "  has  (had  then)  now 
"  become  respectable."     Think  of  this ! 

Their  Bath  Kol  they  published  in  an  octavo  form.  So 
they  describe  it.  By  request,  the  Rev.  Robert  Annan,  of 
Long  Lane,  did  the  proof-reading. 

Notwithstanding  their  diligence  in  spreading  before  their 
people  through  the  „prQss  their  testimony  in  Bath  Kol,  in- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  229 

dividuals,  with  an  inconsistency  usuall}^  in  keeping  with 
attachment  to  error,  imagined  that  they  could  deny  the 
truth  of  the  standards  of  the  church  and  still  (so  far  as 
they  pleased)  enjoy  full  privilesjes  as  members.  This  was 
attempted  by  individuals  in  Newburyport.  They  "  were 
not  free  to  profess  their  belief  of  the  future  eternity  of 
hell  torments,"  and  yet  claimed  "  all  the  special  privileges 
of  Christians." 

"After  serious  consideration  "  of  a  communication  from 
the  session  of  said  church,  the  Presbytery  at  Derry,  Sep- 
tember 13th,  1785,  say,  "  We  cannot  see  how  any  church 
connected  with  us  could,  after  the  issuing  of  our  testimony 
on  the  21st  of  May,  1783,  judicially  condemning  the  doc- 
trine of  universar  salvation,  allow  any  special  fellowship 
to  any  adherent  to  those  errors." 

"This  Presbytery,  firmly  adhering  to  our  said  public 
act,  highly  approve  of  the  conduct  of  the  pastor  and  ses- 
sion of  said  church  in  the  facts  stated  in  the  resolutions 
now  presented,  and  we  solemnly  enjoin  on  all  our  mem- 
bers and  all  churches  under  our  care,  to  adopt  the  same 
rule  of  conduct  towards  Origenists  which  has  been  ob- 
served by  these  our  brethren  in  this  case,  as  they  would 
avoid  the  pains  of  the  discipline  of  Christ's  church  against 
schism,  heres}^  and  disorder." 

"  On  motion.  Resolved,  That  in  the  present  low  state  of 
religion  among  us,  this  Presbytery  judge  that  it  is  not 
enough  to  bear  as  they  have  done  open  testimony  against 
errors  and  vices,  without  seriously  attempting  to  push  for- 
ward an  actual  reformation  in  the  matters  complained  of 
among  the  churches  under  our  care.  And  as  Presbyterial 
visitations  have  ever  made  a  standing  part  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  government  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
have  always  been  found  to  be  a  blessed  means,  under  God, 
of  reforming  abuses  and  keeping  peace  and  order  in  the 
church,  this  mode,  long  disused  by  this  body  on  account  of 
the  public  perils  and  distresses  of  the  late  war,  ought  now 
to  1)6  revived  among  us  without  further  delay." 

This  duty  was  to  "  be  commenced  at  next  meeting,  and 
to  be  continued  only  at  stated  meetings  until  all  the  con- 
gregations were  visited,  and  in  performing,  the  rules  laid 
down  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
shall  be  observed,  excepting  such  parts  as  are  local." 


230  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

This  was  a  wise  movement,  as  such  visitation  of  each 
church,  pastor,  elders,  deacons,  and  people  by  the  Presby- 
tery is  a  necessary  element  in  "taking  care  of  the  house 
of  God."  "Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you." 
Submit  yourselves,  for  they  watch  for  your  souls  as  they 
that  must  give  an  account,  not  onl}^  to  the  Chief  Shepherd, 
when  he  comes  from  above,  but  now,  to  those  who  are 
constituted  "  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  as 
thrones  of  judgment,  thrones  of  the  house  of  (our  New 
Testament)  David. 

In  no  other  way  can  delinquencies  be  so  completely 
reached  and'  the  church  kept  pure,  vital,  active,  and  ag- 
gressive as  by  sworn  official  watch  of  all  its  members, 
rulers  and  ruled. 

If  this  course  were  pursued  by  every  Presbytery  at  each 
stated  meeting,  "pure  and  undefiled  religion"  would, 
under  the  Divine  blessing,  see  brighter  days  than  the 
visible  church  has  yet  seen.  Where  the  pastor  teaches 
publicly  and  from  house  to  house,  where  the  elders  bear 
rule  well,  where  those  who  are  "  over  the  outward  things 
of  the  house  of  God  "  use  the  office  of  a  deacon  well,  they 
individually,  in  their  respective  relations,  purchase  to 
themselves  a  good  degree  and  great  boldness  in  the  faith." 
Individual  members  and  parents  thus  seeing  those  Avho 
are  over  them  in  the  Lord  examined,  not  only  become 
divested  of  any  petty  jealousy  of  feeling,  but  learn  to  sus- 
tain with  pleasure  their  spiritual  guides  and  overseers  in 
every  department  of  demanded  duty  ;  while  children  be- 
come increasingly  accustomed  to  them,  and,  by  the  obser- 
vation of  such  visitations,  more  familiar  with  the  bulwarks 
of  the  church,  and  learn  to  go  (not  to  be  driven)  "by  the 
footsteps  of  the  flock." 

That  is  not  all.  Such  official  duty  has  the  promise  of 
an  efficacious  blessing.  "  Occupy,"  "  Be  thou  faithful  .  .  . 
and  I  will  give,"  "  Digging  about  and  dunging,"  is  the 
only  sure  way  to  productiveness  and  abundance.  (Acts 
XX.  28.) 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  231 


CHAPTER  X. 

1768-1793 — How  were  the  means  of  grace  relished? — A  revival — Pres- 
bytery of  Grafton — A  letter  to — Wliat  response  we  know  not — 
"  Hopes  to  be  excused  " — Odiorne — The  State  religion  "  the  most 
honorablest" — D.  F.  Williams'  declinature — "Not  consistent  with 
our  principles" — Visitation — How  conducted,  shewn — A  decisive 
part — Congn.  stimulated — Innovations — Principle  bad  not  yet  evapo- 
rated— The  Precentor — Presbytery  recommended — Delusions  and  de- 
filmg  sins — A  Fast- Day — Observed  November,  1786 — Jeremiah  Pear- 
sons informs  Kev.  J.  Chandler  about  their  receiving  Murray — Things 
tbat  were  ready  to  die  in  Church  and  Town — Hence  letter  to  Sea- 
brook  Congn.,  1788 — The  people  obeyed  the  Presbytery  and  pros- 
pered— Kev.  Thos.  Hibbert  from  bad  to  worse — His  lawsuit — De- 
posed and  excommunicated — An  unique  scene — Washington  goes 
"down  East" — The  Presbytery  address  him — His  answer — The 
stigma — Murray's  usefulness  limited  by  it — The  three  Presbyteries — 
Three  Churches — Kev.  S.  Williams  anxious — He  wrote  earnestly  to 
Mr.  M.  to  seek  reconciliation  with  the  Philadelphia  Presbytery — ^Mr. 
M.  persisted  in  denying  the  forgery — Atkinson  and  Moore' licensed — 
Mr.  Jona.  Brown  promised  $5.00  per  Sabbath  and  his  ferryage — 
Death  of  Kev.  William  Davidson,  Feb.  15,  1791 — His  character — 
Mantles  now  worn  by  natives — Pungent  letter  to  Seabrook — Its  effects 
— Last  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  at  Eastward,  of  which  we  have 
records  there,  June  13,  1792— First  Church,  Derry,  ask  supply — But 
they  object  to  Jona.  Brown — Broadstreet  examined  and  approved — 
Wm.  Pigeon  recommended  as  a  Bursar — The  proposals  for  a  union  of 
Presbyteries  considered,  and  Commissioners  appointed  to  meet  the 
Commissioners  of  the  other  Presbyteries  at  Dartmouth  on  the  23d 
of  August,  1792 — Adjourned  to  meet  in  New  Market,  on  October  4th, 
1792 — A  recapitulation — Kegular  meetings  of  this  Presbytery  held  for 
a  few  years,  but  how  long  is  uncertain. 

In  tracing  our  ecclesiastical  polities,  it  is  a  matter  of  the 
highest  importance  (and  one  which  we  can  only  reach  ap- 
proximatel}^  to  ascertain  with  what  life  the  means  of 
grace,  where  they  w^ere  enjoyed,  were  relished.  "  The  cares 
of  the  world,  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the  lust  of 
other  things  entering  in,  choke  the  word,  and  it  becometh 
unfruitful." 


232  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

We  have  seen  in  a  former  generation  how  it  was  in  Lon- 
donderry and  elsewhere,  while  the  utterances  of  Bath  Kol 
are  discouraging,  indicating  an  extensive  destitution  of 
those  "  works  of  righteousness  "  whose  "  fruit  is  unto  holi- 
ness." 

This  is  n()ticed  in  connection  with  a  statement  in  the 
following  letter,  in  which  we  find  that  a  revival  was  expe-" 
rienced  in  the  interior  parts  of  New  Hampshire,  and  that, 
as  a  consequence,  a  Presbytery  had  been  there  formed. 

It  is  dated  at  Londonderry  on  September  13th,  1785, 
"  To  the  Rev.  Presbytery  of  "Grafton,  the  first  Presbytery 
of  the  Eastward,  wish  grace,  mercy  and  peace,  etc.,  etc. : 

"i^cy.  and  dearly  beloved  in  the  Lord : — Animated,  we  trust, 
by  a  dutiful  zeal  for  the  faith  and  order  of  the  gospel, 
which,  with  pain,  we  behold  lamentably  set  aside  by  too 
many  of  all  ranks  among  us."  They  now  state  the  cir- 
cumstances of  their  organization  ;  the  name  of  their  Pres- 
bytery, their  standards  as  to  doctrine,  government  and 
discipline,  ignoring  their  matter  and  form  of  worship. 
"  Conducted  by  this  platform,  through  the  indulgence  of 
Zion's  King,  we  have  maintained  brotherly  love  among 
ourselves,  peace  and  order  in  the  churches  under  our  care, 
and  have  received  various  additions  of  ministers  and 
churches  to  our  number  from  time  to  time. 

"Beside  the  organized  churches  wliich  compose  our 
body,  a  great  number  of  towns  and  settlements  in  this  ex- 
tensive eastern  region  apply  to  us  for  supplies  of  the  gos- 
pel. To  the  utmost  of  our  power  we  have  endeavored  to 
answer  their  calls ;  and  had  we  candidates  sufficient  for 
our  vacancies,  we  should  not  doubt  but  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  in  a  very  short  time  to  see  Presbyterian  churches 
planted  throughout  the  Eastward.  To  this  happy  event 
nothing  has  been  a  greater  obstruction  than  tlie  want  of 
visible  union  among  Presbyterians.  To  form  a  counter- 
poise to  this,  it  has  been  '  as  cold  water  to  the  thirsty  soul,' 
to  hear  that  the  Lord  hatli  l)een  pouring  out  his  Spirit  on 
his  ministers  and  churches  in  the  interior  parts  of  this 
State,  and  that  a  goodly  number  of  them  have  been  thereb}'' 
moved  to  revive  the  ancient  and  scriptural  form  of  govern- 
ment in  that  country,  and  have  actually  formed  them- 
selves into  a  regular  Presbytery,  and  walk  together  in  the 
faith  and  order  of  the  gospel. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  233 

"This  Presbytery  rejoice  to  take  this  opportunity  to 
open  a  friendly  correspondence  Avith  you,  as  a  sister  judi- 
catory in  Christ's  house,  and  as  such,  to  offer  to  you  the 
right  hand  of  fellowship.  To  make  these  our  sentiments 
known  to  your  reverend  body,  and  in  our  name  to  negoti- 
ate whatever  may  be  necessary  for  the  union  and  har- 
mony of  this  part  of  Christ's  mystical  body  among  us,  we 
have  sent  a  worthy  member  of  this  Presbytery,  commis- 
sioned and  instructed  for  that  purpose. 

"We  request  you  charitably  to  receive  him  in  the  Lord 
as  our  own  souls,  to  give  full  credence  to  him  as  our  repre- 
sentative, and  treat  with  him  as  you  w'ould  with  us  if  per- 
sonally present.  Begging  an  interest  in  your  prayers, 
wishing  you  all  needed  grace  and  all  desirable  success  in 
the  gospel  vineyard,  witli  great  veneration  and  affection- 
ate esteem,  we  are,  etc.,  etc." 

Whether  an}^  and  what  response  was  returned  to  this 
letter  we  know  not,  but  negotiations  for  union  w^ere  for 
years  continued.  It  also  brings  out  the  real  existence  of 
Grafton  Presbytery. 

From  fragmentary  minutes  we  are  able  to  trace  the 
doings  of  this  Presbytery  a  few  years  longer. 

At  Amesbury,  June  7th,  1786,  there  w^ere  present  Revs. 
Joseph  Prince,  Thomas  Hibbard  and  Simon  Williams, 
with  Elders  Jonathan  Ring,  Edward  Harris,  Deacon 
Tukesbury  and  Jolm  Moulton,  Esq.  Absent — Revs.  Wil- 
liam Davidson,  Solomon  Moore,  John  Murray  and  Na- 
thaniel Ewer. 

In  answ^er  to  a  petition  from  Boothbay,  Presbytery  de- 
sired their  candidate,  Mr.  Gilbert  T.  Williams,  to  go,  but 
he  requested  the  Presbytery  to  "indulge  him,  as  he  finds 
a  great  reluctance  in  taking  such  a  journey  "  even  in  sum- 
mer, as  far  as  from  Windham,  N.  H.,  to  Boothbay  in 
Maine,  therefore  he  "  hopes  to  be  excused." 

"  Send,  Lord,  by  wliom  tbou  wilt  send."  I  cannot  "en- 
dure hardness,"  much  less  ''all  things  for  the  elect's  sake, 
that  they  may  also  obtain  the  salvation  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  with  eternal  glory." 

Having  declined  going,  he  was  "  appointed  to  supply  the 
vacancies  in  these  parts  at  his  own  discretion."  His  Pres- 
byterianism  was  too  feeble  to  resist  his  surroundings,  and 
his  proclivities  ran  to  Congregationalism. 


234  HISTORY  OF  piiesbytp:rianism 

Presbytery  had  control  of  the  taxes  for  the  support  of 
the  parish  minister  in  only  a  few  towns.  "  The  loaves  and 
fishes  "  were,  even  then,  to  some  minds  (indebted  to  Pres- 
byterianism  for  all  their  moral  worth  and  consequent 
prosperity),  of  more  importance  than  the  dictates  of  grati- 
tude. Like  tlie  old  Swiss  gentleman,  Odiorne  of  HaHfax, 
Nova  Scotia,  when  with  his  daughter,  who,  after  her  mar- 
riage, went  with  her  husband  fa  son  of  the  Attorney-Gen- 
eral of  the  Province)  to  the  Episcopal  church,  and  when 
an  elder  remonstrated  with  liim,  saying,  "  wliy  do  you 
leave  our  church,  do  you  not  know  that  the  Presbyterian 
is  the  best  religion?"  "Oh,"  says  he,  "  the  Presbyterian 
rehgion  is  the  best  religion,  but  the  Church  of  England  is 
the  most  lionorablest."  So  it  was  with  iMcKeen  and  the 
AVilliams  as  Bursars.  The  State  religion  was  in  their 
estimation  "  the  most  honorablest,"  and  to  it  they  went. 

October  5th,  1786.  "  Presbytery  proceeded  in  the  busi- 
ness of  the  visitation  of  this  church  (Newburyport).  The 
pastor  being  withdrawn  the  elders  were  examined  accord- 
ing to  tlie  rules  about  the  pastor,  and  then  the  elders  being 
withdrawn  the  pastor  was  examined  as  to  the  session  and 
church  ;  a  full  statement  of  the  order,  government  and  dis- 
cipline thereof  was  laid  before  us,  and  on  the  whole  noth- 
ing found  objected  to  or  complained  of,  unless  that  the 
pastor  in  session  confined  himself  solely  to  the  ])lace  of 
moderator  and  executive  officer  without  taking  a  deciding 
part.  To  which  he  answered  by  reading  certain  instru- 
ments, which  passed  between  him,  the  session  and  church 
previous  to  his  settlement,  in  which  certain  reforms  were 
solicited  by  him  and  promised  by  them  ;  he  withal  declared 
that  whenever  these  were  actually  complied  with,  he  was 
■willing  to  take  as  decisive  a  part  as  is  usual  for  gospel 
ministers  to  do,  but  until  then,  he  declared  himself  bound 
in  conscience  to  go  no  farther  than  he  has  done." 
"  Unanimously  approve  of  the  conduct  of  said  pastor  in 
the  premises  and  encourage  him  to  persevere  therein." 
The  "  go  to  let  us  "  part  of  their  polity,  in  which  their 
Presbyterianism  was  defective,  is  thus  disclosed,  while  by 
thus  "taking  heed  to  all  the  flock,"  the  Presbytery  have 
before  them  a  reliable  knowledge  of  their  average  spiritual 
condition.  The  congregation  in  the  meantime  are  stimu- 
lated to  higher  attainments  in  the  Divine  life,  and  see 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  235 

more  extensively  the  responsibility  of  those  who  watch  for 
their  souls  and  resolve  to  hold  them  more  "highly  in  love 
for  their  work's  sake." 

Pro  re  nata  at  Londonderry,  November  9th,  1786.  A 
remonstrance  from  the  session  of  Londonderry,  signed  by 
eleven  ruling  elders,  in  reference  to  innovations  introduced 
by  a  party  in  relation  to  the  manner  of  singing  in  the 
church  was  now  submitted.  The  Scotch-Irish  Presbyte- 
rian blood  and  principle  had  not  yet  evaporated,  conse- 
quently they  sung  psalms.  But  the  style  had  l)ecome  all 
important  with  a  Dr.  Isaac  Thom  and  some  of  the  parish. 
When  forbidden  by  their  aged  pastor  to  disturb  further 
the  peace  of  the  church,  they  rebelled,  and  persevered  in 
their  innovations. 

In  times  past,  the  precentor  had  stood  in  his  desk  facing 
the  congregation,  so  that  his  countenance  as  well  as  that 
of  the  minister  might  be  seen,  and  draw  the  sympathy  and 
co-operation  of  his  fellow-worshippers ;  but  in  the  surround- 
ing regions  this  decent  and  time-honored  Scriptural  order 
had  been  supplanted  b}'  pitch  pipes,  galler}^  singing,  and 
tunes  not  only  new  to  the  aged,  but  unsuitable  for  the 
praise  of  God,  with  his  "  sweet  psalms." 

The  casting  away  of  the  "  Bay  State  Psalter  "  and  the 
introduction  for  nearly  a  generation  of  the  "  Imitations  " 
had  trained  the  sentimental  New  England  mind  for  new 
usages,  and  the  good  "  ould  twelve  tunes,  which,"  in  slang 
phraseology,  "  the  Lord  made  in  Ireland,"  now,  like  John 
Barleycorn,  "  must  die." 

Upon  "  particular  inquiry,  it  was  found  that  neither  the 
elders  nor  Dr.  Thom  were  clothed  with  proper  authority  to 
represent  their  respective  parties.  Therefore  the  Presb}^- 
tery  resolved,  that  they  cannot  constitutionally  proceed  to 
hear  and  judge  on  the  merits  of  this  cause  at  this  time, 
and  thc}^  earnestly  recommend  it  to  both  parties  to  forbear 
all  animosities  and  contentions  on  this  subject,  and  to  ex- 
ercise forbearance  and  Christian  candor  on  both  sides  until 
we  have  opportunity  to  determine  the  case  regularly  in  a 
judicial  way." 

Newburyport,  October  5th,  1786.  "  Taking  into  serious 
consideration  the  manifold  delusions  and  land-defiling 
sins  now  prevailing  in  this  land,  and  the  awful  public 
frowns  and  judgments  of  Almighty  God  now  justly  pour- 


236  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ing  out  upon  it,  in  the  lamentable  state  of  our  public 
affairs,  Presbytery  agree  that  the  first  Tuesday  of  Novem- 
ber next  be  set  apart  and  observed  in  all  the  congregations 
under  our  care  as  a  day  of  fasting,  humiliation  and  prayer, 
that  we  and  our  people  may  then  publicly  confess  our  sins 
and  implore  the  God  of  all  grace  to  avert  the  judgments 
which  he  is  now  threatening  and  we  as  a  people  justly 
deserve." 

So  far  as  is  known,  that  day  was  duly  observed. 

At  Topsham,  June  13th,  1787,  an  "  elder  from  Boothbay 
expressed  the  desire  of  that  congregation  to  receive  a  can- 
didate, who  has  a  view  to  settlement." 

Their  next  meeting  was  at  Seabrook,  October  17th,  1787. 
Murray,  Prince,  Ewer,  and  Thos.  Hibbard  present,  with 
six  elders. 

On  August  25th,  1787,  a  Rev.  Jas.  Chandler  wrote  to  an 
elder  (Jeremiah  Pearson)  in  Newburyport,  to  "  know  upon 
what  grounds  they  had  received  Mr.  Murray  "  as  pastor, 
as  he  had  seen  the  character  of  him  given  by  the  first 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia;  and  received  the  following 
reply : 

"  JPrincipally  these :  Beside  his  appeal  to  an  impartial 
public,  are  his  examination  and  confession  before  his  Pres- 
bytery ;  his  letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Parsons,  in  which  is  con- 
tained such  a  confession  as  satisfied  the  Boston  Presbytery 
when  read  at  their  session  both  at  Palmer  and  at  Salem, 
and  satisfied  our  church  ;  his  transportation  from  Booth- 
bay  to  this  place  by  the  Presbytery  of  which  those 
churches  are  members ;  to  which  might  be  added,  his  being 
one  of  the  greatest  Calvinistic  divines  of  the  age — a  mirror 
of  patience,  of  a  godly  life  and  conversation  during  his 
residence  at  the  Eastward — are  some  of  the  grounds  upon 
which  he  was  received  by  our  church.  Sir,  I  might  give 
many  more." 

At  Candia,  June  11th,  1788.  Present,  Prince,  Ewer, 
Williams,  Sol.  ^loore,  Robt.  Moore,  John  Murray,  and 
seven  elders.  Opened  with  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Moore  on  "Effectual  Calling"  (10th  chap.  Conf  of  Faith). 

By  this  time  some  of  their  congregations  were  becoming 
like  the  seven  churches  in  lesser  Asia.  They  had  things 
which  were  "  ready  to  die,"  where  the  church  and  town 
Jiad  alike  sunk  into  indifference,  and  to  which  the}'  gave 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  237 

official  attention.     Hence  the  following  from  the  pointed 
and  prolific  pen  of  Murray  to  the  church  and  congregation 
of  Seabrook,  dated  Newburyport,  Jul}^  5th,  1788 : 
"  Dearly  beloved  in  the  Lord  : 

"  It  is  with  much  reluctance  and  regret  that  I  am  now 
obliged  to  sit  down  to  the  painful  task  of  sending  to  you  a 
letter  of  reproof  and  admonition,  in  the  name  of  the  Rev. 
Presbytery  under  whose  care  you  are  placed,  for  the  long 
sinful  neglect  of  seeking  for  the  pubhc  means  of  grace  for 
3^our  congregation. 

"At  the  last  meeting  of  Presbytery,  when,  in  the  course 
of  their  inquiries  into  the  state  of  the  churches  under 
their  care,  they  found  that,  after  all  that  had  been  said  on 
that  matter  at  Seabrook,  yet  no  steps  have  been  taken  on 
your  part  to  obtain  even  occasional  supplies  for  the  pulpit 
since  that  time ;  the  information  was  received  with  equal 
horror  and  surprise. 

"  Considering  themselves  as  a  judicatory  bound  to  watch 
over  you  for  good,  they  thought  they  could  not  acquit 
themselves  to  their  own  consciences,  nor  to  the  great  Head 
of  the  church,  if  they  continued  any  longer  to  stand  by, 
and  by  their  silence  seem  to  connive  at  so  open  and  de- 
liberate a  neglect  of  Christ  and  of  his  gospel. 

"  Therefore,  to  discharge  the  part  of  faithful  friends  and 
watchmen  towards  you,  they  ordered  their  clerk  to  testify 
to  you,  in  their  name,  that  this  practice  is  equally  dishon- 
orable to  religion  and  dangerous  to  your  own  souls.  The}'' 
beseech  you  as  brethren  to  consider  what  an  aspect  that 
church  must  have,  that  professes  the  Christian  religion,  is 
planted  in  a  Christian  land  where  the  means  of  grace  are 
plenty  and  the  fullest  liberty  to  enjoy  them  indulged,  and 
yet  continues  quiet  and  easy  from  year  to  year  without 
sermons,  without  sacraments,  with  the  house  of  the  Lord 
shut  up  and  lying  waste. 

"  They  intreat  you  to  recollect  that,  in  the  meanwhile, 
time  is  wasting ;  death  is  hastening  on  ;  the  awful  day  of 
accounts  drawing  near ;  and  that  when  it  arrives  it  will  be 
an  unavailing  plea  to  say  your  parish  was  poor,  since  that 
God,  who  provided  you  with  that  little,  will  surely  assert 
his  right  to  require  some  part  of  it  for  his  own  service. 

"  They  wish  you  to  reflect  whether  the  continuance  of 
that  poverty  may  not  be  a  judgment  for  this  habitual  pub- 


238  HISTORY    OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

lie  contempt  of  his  word,  and  whether  it  is  not  probable 
that  your  persisting  in  that  sin  may  provoke  the  Lord  to 
inflict  yet  sorer  judgments;  whetlier  it  does  not  tend  to 
bring  up  your  chikh'en  in  fatal  ignorance  of  God,  and  to 
make  way  for  deism,  infidelity,  and  atlieism  itself,  to  take 
their  full  sweep  among  the  rising  generation ;  whether,  if 
sinners  go  on  hardened  in  impenitence  and  perish  at  last 
for  lack  of  vision,  their  blood  will  not  be  required  at  your 
hands,  and  whether,  in  that  sad  case,  the  saving  a  little 
earthly  interest  for  your  children  and  posterity  will  be 
enough  to  countervail  the  damage? 

,  "  Tiie  Presbytery  remonstrate  these  serious  things  to  you 
with  the  sincerest  respect  and  love  for  your  souls.  They 
pray  you  to  take  the  warning  in  good  part,  and  give  them 
the  comfort  to  know  at  their  next  meeting  that  you  are 
sincerely  resolved  on  such  a  reformation  in  this  respect  as 
may  give  them  occasion  to  rejoice  in  the  prospect  of  your 
finally  escaping  the  wrath  to  come. 

"As  for  myself,  you  may  be  assured  that  nothing  but  a 
conscientious  obedience  to  the  solemn  injunction  of  that 
reverend  body  to  which  I  am  subject,  could  have  persuaded 
me  to  undertake  this  painful  task — and  permit  me  to  re- 
quest that  you  believe  that  every  word  I  have  written  is 
dictated  from  the  sincerest  desire  for  your  greatest  happi- 
ness in  time  and  eternity,  and  thus  I  hope  to  be  still  con- 
sidered as,  gentlemen,  your  affectionate  friend  and  very 
humble  servant  in  the  gospel  of  Christ." 

May  not  Presbyteries  be  found  to-day  who  require  to 
profit  by  this  example  of  official  fidelity  where  churches 
are  alloAved  to  commit  suicide  or  die  out  without  such  a 
solemn  remonstrance?  "These  (as  well  as  inspired) 
things  were  written  aforetime  for  our  learning." 

"  How  forcible  are  right  words  !  "  The  people  obeyed 
them  who  had  the  rule  over  them,  resumed  public  worship, 
and,  as  we  shall  (D.  V.)  see,  the  last  meeting  of  "  the  Pres- 
bytery at  the  Eastward,"  of  which  we  have  full  records,  was 
held  at  Seabrook. 

Our  next  item  of  record  is  dated  "Amesbury,  Novem- 
ber 6th,  1788,  7  A.  M.  Presbytery  met  in  interloquitur.^^ 
The  cause  of  their  meeting  was  an  aggravated  case  of 
drunkenness.  The  congregation  was  one  w-hich  had  come 
to  Presbyterianism,  and  the  habits  of  the  pastor,  the  Rev. 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  239 

Thomas  Hibbert,  had  grown  from  bad  to  worse.  By  the 
"  parish  book  "  it  appeared  that  on  "  December  13th  (1787), 
they  voted  £18  to  be  paid  to  him  for  all  services  as  a  min- 
ister, on  condition  that  he  cancel  all  the  minister's  taxes 
till  the  24th  of  May,  1788,  and  also  continue  to  preach  to 
us  till  then."  This  was  recalled.  He  offered  to  leave  the 
matter  to  referees.  He  prosecuted  them.  Deacon  Tucker 
agreed  that  the  society  pay  their  part  of  Mr.  Hibbert^ 
charges  in  a  lawsuit  with  that  parish,  according  to  cove- 
nant, and  also  to  pay  up  the  £30  contained  in  the  above 
vote  and  subscription  on  the  condition  therein  men- 
tioned. 

"  Mr.  H.  said  he  would  agree  to  fulfil  his  part,  on  condition 
that  the  Presbytery  peaceably  dismiss  him,"  Instead  of 
doing  so,  he  was  arraigned  and  tried,  and  the  evidence  was 
only  too  conclusive.  After  a  tedious  process,  "  all  parties 
and  witnesses  being  heard  until  they  had  nothing  to  add, 
Presbytery  ordered  them  to  withdraw,  and  carefully 
examined  all  the  papers  left  with  them. 

"  Resolved  unanimously  that  the  complaint  of  intoxica- 
tion is  fully  proved,  as  were  also  two  other  charges,  and  they 
deposed  him  from  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry."  They 
then  declared  the  pulpit  vacant,  and  exhorted  the  society, 
so  soon  as  may  be,  to  obtain  another  minister.  Is  not 
"  wine  a  mocker  and  strong  drink  raging  "  in  view  of  such 
occurrences  ? 

"  The  Presbytery  gave  to  him  the  position  of  a  private 
member  in  the  church.  This  he  spurned,  and  on  April 
29th,  1789,  the  session  gave  him  till  the  last  Wednesday  in 
June  to  express  his  sorrow  for  his  sin.  If  then  impenitent, 
the  session  will  ask  the  Presbyter}^  to  excommunicate  him, 
which  was  done  on  the  20th  day  of  Jul}^,  1789,  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  Presbytery  by  the  Rev.  Solomon  Moore, 
Moderator." 

From  this  humiliating  scene,  a  minister  excommunicated 
for  drunkenness,  for  indecent  conduct  in  the  house  of  wor- 
ship on  the  Lord's  day,  and  for  lying,  we  now  turn  to  an 
unique  occurrence — a  "  Scotch-Irish  "  church  court  in  per- 
sonal communication  with  the  "  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America." 

In  October,  1789,  George  Washington  went  "down 
East,"  and  he  who  had  "  lifted  up  his  voice  like  a  trumpet," 


240  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

who  had  aided  successfully  "  committees  of  safety  "  and 
constrained  men  to  fill  the  depleted  ranks  in  the  army, 
whose  head  was  previously  for  years  in  the  British  mar- 
ket worth  five  hundred  sterling  pounds,  standing  in  part 
in  the  shadow  of  the  then  traveller  himself,  as  "  the  first  in 
war,  the  first  in  peace  "  in  the  pulpit,  and  where  he  was 
not  positively  hated,  "  the  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  coun- 
trymen," now,  with  his  co-presbyters,  addresses  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  nation. 

While  the  address,  like  the  clerk  who  prepared  it,  may 
be  by  some  considered  a  little  "  poilipous,"  those  only  Avho 
can  produce  one  more  appropriate  are  entitled  to  cavil  at 
it.     The  criticisms  of  inferior  minds  cannot  deteriorate  it. 

*'  The  Address  of  the  First  Presbytery  of  the  Eastward  to 
George  Washington,  President  of  the  United  States: 
"Sir:  We,  the  ministers  and  ruling  elders  resident  in 
Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  which  comi^ose  '  the 
First  Presbytery  of  the  Eastward^''  now  holding  a  stated  ses- 
sion in  this  town  (Newbury portj,  beg  leave  to  a})proach 
your  presence  with  genuine  feelings  of  the  deepest  venera- 
tion and  highest  esteem. 

"  We  ask  the  lionor  of  a  place  among  the  multitudes  of 
good  citizens  who  are  ambitious  of  expressing  the  heartfelt 
satisfaction  with  which  they  bid  you  a  cordial  welcome  to 
these  eastern  parts  of  your  government.  In  unison  with 
rejoicing  millions  we  felicitate  our  country  and  ourselves 
•on  your  unanimous  election  to  the  highest  office  which  a 
nation  can  bestow,  and  on  your  acceptance  of  the  trust 
with  every  evidence  which  a  citizen  can  give  of  being  ac- 
tuated thereto  by  the  purest  principles  of  patriotism,  of 
piety  and  of  self-denial. 

"  Great  was  the  joy  of  our  hearts  to  see  the  late  tedious 
and  destructive  war  at  length  terminated  in  a  safe  and 
honorable  peace ;  to  see  the  liberty  and  independence  of 
our  country  happily  secured ;  to  see  wise  constitutions  of 
civil  government  peaceably  established  in  the  several 
States,  and  especially  to  see  a  confederation  of  them  all 
finally  agreed  on  by  the  general  voice. 

"  But  with  all  our  joy,  we  ever  contemplated  with  regret 
the  want  of  efficiency  in  the  Federal  government ;  we 
ardently  wished  for  a  form  of  national  union  which  should 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  241 

draw  the  cord  of  amity  more  closely  around  the  several 
States,  concentrate  their  separate  interests  and  reduce  the 
freemen  of  America  to  one  great  body,  ruled  by  one  head 
and  animated  by  one  soul. 

"And  we  now  devoutly  offer  our  humble  tribute  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving  to  the  all  gracious  Father  of  lights,  who 
has  inspired  our  public  councils  with  a  wisdom  and  firm- 
ness which  have  effected  that  desirable  purpose  in  so  great 
a  measure  by  the  National  Constitution^  and  who  has  fixed 
the  eyes  of  all  America  on  you  as  the  worthiest  of  its  citi- 
zens to  be  entrusted  with  the  execution  of  it. 

"  Whatever  any  may  have  supposed  wanting  in  the 
original  plan,  we  are  happ}^  to  find  so  wisely  providing  in 
its  amendments ;  and  it  is  with  peculiar  satisfaction  that 
we  behold  how  easily  the  entire  confidence  of  the  people  in 
the  man  who  sits  at  the  helm  of  government  has  eradicated 
every  remaining  objection  to  its  form. 

"Among  these  we  never  considered  iha  want  of  a  relig- 
ious test,  that  grand  engine  of  persecution  in  every  tyrant's 
hand.  But  we  should  not  have  been  alone  in  rejoicing  to 
have  seen  some  explicit  acknowledgment*  of '  the  only  true 
God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  he  hath  sent '  inserted  some- 
where in  the  Magna  Charta  of  our  country. 

"  We  are  happy  to  find,  however,  that  this  defect  has  been 
remedied  in  the  face  of  all  the  world  by  the  piet}'  and  de- 
votion in  which  your  first  public  act  of  office  was  performed 
— by  the  religious  observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  of  the 
public  worship  of  God,  of  which  you  have  set  so  eminent 
an  example — and  by  the  warm  strains  of  Christian  and  de- 
vout affections  which  run  through  your  late  proclamation 
for  a  general  thanksgiving. 

"  The  catholic  spirit  breathed  in  all  your  public  acts  sup- 
ports us  in  the  assurance  that  no  religious  establishments, 
no  exclusive  privileges  tending  to  elevate  one  denomination 
of  Christians  to  the  depression  of  the  remainder,  can  be 
ratified  by  the  signature  of  the  President  during  your  ad- 
ministration. On  the  contrary,  w^e  bless  God  that  your 
whole  deportment  bids  all  denominations  confidently  to 
expect  to  find  in  you  the  ^vatchful  guardian  of  their  equal 

"An  acknowledgment  would  pick  no  man's  pocket  and  break  no  man's 
leg." — {Thomas  Jefferson.) 
16 


242  HISTORY    OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

liberties,  the  steady  patron  of  genuine  Christianity,  and  the 
bright  example  of  those  peculiar  virtues  in  which  its  dis- 
tinguishing doctrines  have  their  proper  effects.  Under  the 
nurturing  hand  of  a  Ruler  of  such  virtues  and  one  so  de- 
servedly revered  by  all  ranks,  we  joyfully  indulge  the  hope 
that  virtue  and  religion  will  revive  and  liourish ;  that  infi- 
delity and  the  vices  ever  attendant  in  its  train  will  be  ban- 
ished from  every  polite  circle,  and  that  rational  piety  will 
soon  become  fashionable  there,  and  from  thence  be  diffused 
among  all  other  ranks  in  the  community. 

"  Captivated  with  the  delightful  prospect  of  a  national 
reformation  rising  out  of  the  influence  of  your  authority 
and  example,  we  find  the  fullest  encouragement  to  cherish 
the  hope  of  it  from  the  signal  deeds  of  pious  and  patriotic 
heroism,  which  marked  the  steps  of  'the  Father  of  his 
country,'  from  the  memorable  hour  of  his  appearance  in 
Congress,  to  declare  the  disinterested  views  with  which  he 
accepted  the  command  of  her  armies,  to  that  hour  not  less 
memorable,  when,  having  gloriously  acquitted  himself  in 
that  important  trust  and  completely  accomplished  the  de- 
sign of  it,  he  appeared  in  the  same  great  Assembly  again, 
and  resigned  his  commission  into  the  hands  that  gave  it. 

"  But  glorious  as  your  course  has  been  as  a  soldier  in 
arms,  defending  your  country  and  the  rights  of  mankind, 
we  exult  in  the  presage,  that  it  will  be  far  outshone  by  the 
superior  lustre  of  a  more  glorious  career  now  before  you 
as  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  our  nation,  protecting  by  just 
and  merciful  laws  and  by  a  wise,  firm  and  temperate  exe- 
cution of  them,  enhancing  the  value  of  those  inestimable 
rights  and  privileges  which  you  have  so  worthily  asserted 
to  it  by  your  sword. 

"  Permit  us  then,  Great  Sir,  to  assure  you,  that  while  it 
ever  shall  be  our  care  in  our  several  places,  to  inculcate  on 
our  people  those  principles  drawn  from  the  pure  fountain 
of  light  and  truth  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  which  can  best 
recommend  your  virtues  to  their  imitation,  and  which,  if 
generally  obeyed,  would  contribute  essentially  to  render 
your  people  happ}'  and  your  government  prosperous;  our 
unceasing  prayer  to  the  Great  Sovereign  of  all  nations  shall 
be  that  your  important  life  and  all  your  singular  talents, 
may  be  the  special  care  of  an  indulgent  Providence  for 
many  years  to  come;  that  your  administration  may  be 


IN   NEW  ENGLAND.  243 

continued  to  your  country  under  the  peculiar  smiles  of 
heaven,  long  enough  to  advance  the  interests  of  learning 
to  the  zenith ;  to  carry  the  arts  and  sciences  to  their 
destined  perfection ;  to  chase  ignorance,  bigotry  and  im- 
morality off  the  stage;  to  restore  true  virtue  and  the  reli- 
gion of  Jesus  to  their  deserved  throne  in  our  land,  and  to 
found  the  liberties  of  America,  both  religious  and  civil,  on 
a  basis  which  no  era  of  futurity  shall  ever  see  removed ; 
and,  finally,  that  when  you  have  thus  done,  free  grace 
may  confer  on  you,  as  the  reward  of  all  your  great  labors, 
the  unfading  laurels  of  an  everlasting  crown. 

"  Signed  in  the  name,  presence,  and  on  behalf  of  the 
First  Presbytery  of  the  Eastward. 

"  Joseph  Prince,  Moderator. 

"  John  Murray,  Pres.  Clerk." 

The  President's  answer  to  the  above  address : 

To  the  Ministers  and  Ruling  Elders  delegated  to  represent 
the  churches  in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire, 
which  compose  the  First  Presbytery  of  the  Eastward. 

"Gentlemen:  The  affectionate  welcome  which  3'ou  aie 
pleased  to  give  me  to  the  eastern  part  of  this  Union,  would 
leave  me  without  excuse  did  I  fail  to  acknowledge  the 
sensibility  it  aAvakens,  and  to  express  the  most  sincere  re- 
turn that  a  grateful  sense  of  your  goodness  can  suggest. 
To  be  approved  by  the  praiseworthy,  is  a  wish  as  natural 
to  becoming  ambition  as  its  consequence  is  flattering  to 
self-love.  I  am,  indeed,  much  indebted  to  the  favorable 
sentiments  which  you  entertain  towards  me,  and  it  will  be 
my  study  to  deserve  them. 

"  The  tribute  of  thanksgiving  which  you  offer  to  the 
gracious  Father  of  lights,  for  his  inspiration  of  our  public 
councils  with  wisdom  and  firmness  to  complete  the  na- 
tional Constitution,  is  worthy  of  men  who,  devoted  to  the 
pious  purposes  of  religion,  desire  their  accomplishment  by 
such  means  as  advance  the  temporal  happiness  of  man- 
kind. 

"And  here,  I  am  persuaded,  you  will  permit  me  to  ob- 
serve, that  the  path  of  true  piety  is  so  plain  as  to  require 
but  little  political  attention.    To  this  consideration  we 


244  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ought  to  ascribe  the  absence  of  any  regulation  respecting 
religion  from  the  Magna  Charta  of  our  country. 

"  To  the  guidance  of  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  this  im- 
portant object  is,  perhaps,  more  properly  committed.  It 
will  be  your  care  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  to  reclaim  the 
devious ;  and  in  the  progress  of  morality  and  science,  to 
which  our  government  will  give  every  furtherance,  we  may 
expect  confidentl3%  the  advancement  of  true  religion  and 
the  completion  of  hapj^iness.  I  pray  the  munificent  re- 
warder  of  every  virtue,  that  your  agency  in  this  good  work 
may  receive  its  compensation  here  and  hereafter. 

"  George  Washington." 

At  the  risk  of  being  charged  with  needless  repetitions, 
I  now  revert  to  the  anomalous  position  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Murray.  His  usefulness  was  limited  and  his  life  made 
bitter  by  the  stigma  cast  on  his  character. 

In  Newburyport  the  pulpits  were  generally  closed 
against  him,  and  some  of  the  pastors  would  not  even 
speak  to  him.  This  was  not  all.  The  union  of  the  three 
Presbyteries — his  own,  that  of  Grafton  and  one  called  the 
Presbytery  of  Londonderry  (to  be  subsequently  noticed), 
now  became  to  him  a  matter  of  earnest  desire.  But  the 
Presbytery  at  the  Eastward,  as  well  as  Mr.  Murray  him- 
self, was  denied  to  be  in  regular  stimding,  and  from  it,  it 
was  feared,  that  unless  order  and  Presbyterial  harmony 
could  be  obtained,  the  three  Western  churches  w^ould 
finally  withdraw. 

This  pressed  heavily  (among  others)  on  the  mind  of  the 
Rev.  Simon  Williams,  of  Windham.  He  had  borne  odium 
for  the  part  which  he  had  taken  in  tlie  installation  of  Mr. 
Murray  at  Newburyport,  and  years  did  not  diminish  it. 

He  wrote  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  Smith,  of  Piiiladelphia, 
who  "  earnestl}^  recommended  the  personal  a]>pearance  of 
Mr.  Murray  before  that  Presbytery,  in  order  to  tiike  off  the 
censure  and  restore  him  to  good  standing  with  the  Ameri- 
can Presbyterian  churches."  By  having  this  done,  Mr. 
Williams  then  saw  the  way  apparently  clear  for  a  union 
of  the  three  Presbyteries  in  New  England,  and  the  further 
propagation  of  Presbyterianism  in  the  region,  as  w^ell  as 
inter-denominational  intercourse  and  fellowship  with  the 
surrounding  regular  Congregational  churches.    He  wrote 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  245 

earnestly  to  Mr.  Murray,  stating  his  motives — the  glory  of 
God,  the  honor  of  the  American  Presbyterian  church,  the 
well-being  of  his  Presbytery,  and  the  honor  and  dignity 
of  his  own  person,  as  a  lawtiilly  ordained  minister.  So 
earnestly  did  he  desire  this,  that  he  submitted  the  letter 
from  Dr.  Smith  to  his  own  session,  then  to  the  session  of 
Londonderry,  again  to  his  own  session,  and  then  wrote  in 
earnest  terms  to  Mr.  Murray,  begging  him  to  comply  Avith 
the  proposition  stated  by  Dr.  Smith.     He  says : 

"  I  trust  that  you  yourself,  and  all  that  fear  God  in  your 
society,  will  view  my  conduct  in  the  most  favorable  light. 
If  yourself  and  session  think  it  best  to  drop  the  matter,  I 
shall  only  briefly  by  letter  inform  Dr.  Smith ;  but,  if  you 
and  they  {consider  atis  consider  cm  dis)  judge  it  best  that  I 
should  go  on  and  use  all  my  endeavors  to  bring  this  affair 
to  the  happy  union  of  the  said  Presbyter}^  of  the  Eastward 
with  the  other  Presbyterian  churches,  then  let  this  further 
inform  you  that  when  you  concur,  I  will  lay  a  proper 
memorial  before  our  Presbytery  that  it  may  be  corrected 
and  authenticated  by  the  moderator,  in  order  to  furnish 
our  agent  to  wait  upon  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia." 

Dr.  Smith  also  Avrote  to  Mr.  Murray,  and  while  his  friends 
prevailed  on  him  to  answer  the  Doctor,  yet  he  never 
changed  his  position.  He  persisted  in  denying  the  forgery, 
and  finally  "intimated  the  utter  impracticability  of  so 
great  a  journey." 

His  "judgment  respecting  the  importance  of  his  Presby- 
tery continuing  in  a  state  of  independent  separation  from 
the  other  Presbyteries,"  was  very  different  from  the  opinion 
of  the  pastor  and  session  of  Windham  ;  and  his  own  ses- 
sion, if  they  urged  on  him  the  propriety  of  the  course  recom- 
mended by  Mr.  Williams,  had  on  his  purpose  and  course 
no  productive  influence. 

We  have  seen  the  frame  of  his  mind  in  1774,  when  he 
wrote  that  "  the  searcher  of  all  hearts  knew  Ids  agonies  of 
mind  on  every  review,  and  that  no  restoration  to  the  favor 
of  men  could  ever  give  him  ease ; "  and  now,  after  fifteen 
years  (and  even  till  the  day  of  his  death,  four  years  after- 
ward), none  of  the  considerations  pressed  upon  him  by  his 
friend,  the  Rev.  Simon  Williams,  changed  his  mind. 

Returning  to  the  Presbyter3^  In  1790  they  held  two 
meetings — one  at  Windham  and  the  other  at  Londonderry, 


246  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

and  after  due  examination  in  natural  and  moral  philos- 
ophy, natural  religion  and  the  evidences  of  Divine  revela- 
tion, in  systematic  divinit}^  their  personal  experience  and 
their  motives,  the}^  directed  them  to  deliver  their  popular 
sermons,  all  wliicli  being  satisfactorily  done,  they  licensed 
Mr.  Atkinson  and  Mr.  More  to  preach  the  gospel.  By 
elders  Moulton  and  Tukesbury  application  was  made  that 
Mr.  Jonathan  Brown  (candidate)  preach  in  Amesbury, 
Seabrook,  and  Salisbury  (old  town)  in  rotation.  They 
promise  him  five  dollars  per  Sabbath  and  iiis  ferryage. 

He  was  so  appointed.  Mr.  IMore  preached  with  accept- 
ance in  the  town  of  Brunswick,  and  on  June  4th,  1791, 
they  petition  for  his  return  to  them  for  "further  tryal." 

Business  meetings  were  held  at  New  Market  and  New- 
buryport  in  1791. 

On  February  15th,  1791,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Davidson,  of 
Derry,  died,  after  a  pastorate  of  above  fifty  years,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-seven.  He  was  a  man  of  an  amiable  char- 
acter, exemplary  in  deportment,  and  a  devoted  pastor. 
As  a  theologian  or  as  a  public  speaker  he  did  not  excel, 
and  his  doctrinal  views  were  not  always  distinctively  Cal- 
vinistic.  He  was  beloved  for  his  suaviter  in  modo  more  than 
he  was  relied  upon  for  his  fort  iter  in  re.  Thus  the  "  Scotch- 
Irish"  in  the  ministry  were  called  away,  and  their  mantles 
(so  far  as  they  could  fill  them)  were  increasingly  worn  by 
natives  of  New  England,  who  had  not  the  advantages  of 
studying  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  which  Mr. 
Davidson  and  many  of  his  predecessors  and  associates 
enjoyed. 

We  have  already  seen  the  pungent  letter  of  Presbytery 
written  by  their  clerk  to  the  society  in  Seabrook,  who  had, 
through  alleged  poverty,  "  silent  Sabbaths  and  a  shut  tem- 
ple door,"  and  to  all  who  have  the  charge  of  souls  as  pas- 
tors, elders,  or  church  courts,  the  result  (under  the  blessing 
of  heaven)  should  prove  admonitory  and  encouraging. 
They  not  only  asked  for  supplies  in  1790,  but  on  June 
13th,  1792,  the  Presbytery  there  held  their  last  meeting, 
of  which  we  have  minutes  fully  recorded.  There  were 
present  Revs.  Nathaniel  Ewer,  Solomon  Moore,  and  John 
Murray,  with  ruling  elders  Joseph  Young,  Abraham 
Moore,  Jeremiah  Pearson,  David  Tukesbury,  John  Moul- 
ton, and  Thomas  Kennedy ;  and  the  Rev.  Simon  Williams 


IX    NEW    ENGLAND.  247 

(absent)  was  appointed  to  open  the  next  meeting  by  a  ser- 
mon on  the  13th  chap,  of  the  Conf.  of  Faith  (on  Sanctifi^ 
cation).  "Voted  by  Presbytery,  that  they  meet  for  the 
future  at  some  central  place,  which  shall  by  them  be  ap- 
pointed, with  the  proviso  that  the  next  meeting  be  at  New 
Boston,  on  Wednesday,  the  4th  day  of  October." 

"  Mr.  Moore  was  reappointed  to  Brunswick  for  two 
months.  A  call  from  Salisbury  for  Mr.  Jonathan  Brown 
was  sustained  as  regular ;  the  answer  to  the  call  was  post- 
poned, and  Mr.  B.  was  ordered  to  preacli  there  for  four 
Sabbaths.  Messrs.  David  Adams  and  James  Choate  ap- 
peared as  a  committee  from  the  first  church  in  Derry  for 
supply.  The  clerk  was  ordered  to  give  to  them  a  copy  of 
a  letter  from  Mr.  James  McGregor  to  the  Rev.  John  Murray, 
stating  objections  against  Mr.  Brown's  going  to  Derry  as  a 
preacher." 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  Murray  was  appointed  to  assign  places 
to  the  candidates  after  they  have  fulfilled  their  appoint- 
ments." 

"  Mr.  Nathan  Broadstreet,  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth,  was 
now  examined  for  license.  His  extensive  examination 
was  satisfactor}^" 

"  Mr.  William  Pidgeon,  a  student  from  Exeter  Academy, 
having  given  satisfaction,  was  as  a  Bursar  recommended  to 
Dartmouth  College." 

"The  proposals  for  a  union  (which  we  shall  subse- 
quently (D.  V.)  notice)  between  the  Presbyteries  of  New 
England  being  laid  before  the  Presbytery,  voted,  that  they 
be  received  as  preliminaries  to  a  general  plan,  and  that 
the  Rev.  Messrs.  Nathaniel  Ewer,  Simon  Williams,  and 
John  Murra}^  be  commissioned  b}"  the  clerk  as  delegates  to 
attend  a  Synodical  Convention  at  Dartmouth  College,  on 
the  23d  of  August  next  (1792),  for  the  purpose  of  uniting 
the  several  Presbyteries  into  one  Synod ;  and  this  Presby- 
tery engages  to  ratify  as  their  own  act  whatever  may  be 
done  therein  by  their  said  delegates,  or  any  number  of 
them,  who  may  attend  at  that  meeting." 

"Adjourned  to  the  meeting-house  at  New  Boston,  there 
to  meet  on  the  4th  day  of  October  next  (1792),  at  10  a.  m. 
Concluded  with  prayer." 

Thus  the  Synod  of  New  England,  formed  at  Seabrook  in 
1775j  ignoring  the  existence  of  the  Presbytery  at  the  East- 


248  HISTOKY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ward,  continued  some  seven  years  ;  and  the  Presbytery  of 
Salem,  to  which  it  was  reduced,  becoming  extinct  on  the 
14th  of  September,  1791,  at  Gray,  in  Maine,  this  Presby- 
tery survived  it  only  nine  months. 

It  may  be  said,  that  while  its  regular  records  are  not 
found,  it  may  have  prospered  for  years.  This  was  simply 
possible,  not  probable ;  for  one  man  was  "  the  author  and  " 
apparently  the  "finisher  of"  it.  He  who  had  (for  above 
twenty-one  years,  through  evil  report  and  through  good 
report)  been  the  embodiment  of  this  Presbytery,  finished 
his  course  at  Newburyport,  on  March  13th,  1793,  aged 
fifty-one. 

His  funeral  sermon  was  preached  by  the  Rev.  James 
Miltimore,  parish  pastor  of  Stratham,  N.  H. 

After  his  death  regular  meetings  of  the  Presbytery  were 
held  for  a  few  years,  but  how  long  we  cannot  determine. 

Thus,  on  April  19th,  1793,  the  three  selectmen  of  the 
town  of  Belfast,  Maine,  gave  power  to  "  Deacon  John  Tufts 
to  procure  for  the  parish  some  person  of  good  moral  char- 
acter to  preach  for  three  months,  for  the  sum  of  £14  or  £15 
in  money." 

If  Mr.  Abraham  Moore  could  not  be  obtained,  he  was 
instructed  to  consult  the  sessions  of  Windham  or  of  Lon- 
donderry,  for  "  our  benefit,  in  this  wilderness  country." 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  249 


CHAPTER  XI. 

1768-1793 — "  Incurable  dissatisfaction  "  in  N.Y.  carried  North — Arjjyle 
settled  and  named,  1771 — Rev.  Tlios.  Clarke's  Colony — Salem,  N.Y. — 
The  N.  H.  grants — Peterboro,  N.  H.,  notices  of — W.  Londonderry — 
AVm.  Morrison — A.  R.  Synod  formed — Its  third  Presbytery  extended 
into  N.  E. — Presbytery  of  Salem  (Mass.)  desired  to  unite  with  it — 
Frustrated  by  Rev.  S.  Taggart — Irregular  yet  valid— May  19,  1783, 
R.  Annan  stated  the  case  of  Long  Lane  Congn. — "As  he  saw  lit" — 
Notices  of  this  man  and  that  Congn. — Their  application  to  Presbytery 
^ — Received — Their  danger — A.  installed  Sept.  25,  1783 — "A  peculiar 
item  of  business"— Installations  asked — Supplies,  etc. — Litchfield — 
"Whipple — A  deep  want  of  Ministers  now  felt — What  Anderson  was 
to  read — Supplies  asked — The  statement  of  R.  Annan — Synod's  rule 
— Rev.  J.  Houston— Groton,  its  trials  and  activity — Their  case  received 
attention — Whipple — Rev.  R.  Annan  edited  Ba(h  Kol — Boston  not 
Paradise — A.'s  eccentricities — Recalled  to  Wallkill — Young  preachers 
much  wanted — A  reconciliation  desired — Not  effected — An  overture 
requested — Supplies,  etc.,  asked — Church  privileges — Offences  in  Cole- 
raine — Directions — Journeys  performed  to  supply  vacancies — Annan 
not  unwilling  to  leave  Boston — Bedford  asked  him — Worry — Local 
issues  avoided  by  reference — Positive  convictions — A  time  set — A 
Providential  interposition — Dilapidation  increasing — Elders  said  to 
be  of  no  good,  only  to  settle  quarrels — Voted  themselves  into  Congre- 
gationalism— The  pious  grieved — Little's  Trust  now  perverted  by 
schism — No  redress — Fourteen  families  forced  out — Blotted  out  in 
Boston  by  injustice — Presbytery  of  Londonderry  from  June  2d,  1786 
— Records — Supplies  asked — Difficulties  in  Coleraine  considered — La- 
borers much  wanted — "  Orthodox,"  its  meaning  in  1787 — The  political 
field —The  L'^.  S.  Constitution — Simply  Presbyterian  church  government 
adapted  to  the  State — Brattle  Street  Church — "  The  Irisli  meeting- 
house" in  Long  Lane — The  structure — The  U.  S.  Cons,  adopted  in  it — 
An  appropriateness — Federal  Street  Church — Patriotic  delight  in  this 
spot  by  every  true  citizen  in  Massachusetts — A  breach  of  moral  hon- 
esty— The  waning  vestiges  of  this  polity  in  our  field — Antrim — Mer- 
rill unworthy — Six  members  of  Peterboro  anent  a  new  version  of  the 
Psalms — The  A.  R.  Synod — Supplies  wanted — Reasons  for  non-attend- 
ance at  Synod — "  The  broken  State  " — Presbytery  of  Grafton — At  the 
Eastward  the  expediency  of  a  coalescence  with  October  1,  1788 — 
Overborne — Response  from  Grafton  Presbytery  acknowledged — Bar- 
net  incorporated — Cannot  attend  Synod — Modr.  to  write  thus — Good 
feeling  growing — Resignation  of  an  Elder — "  Devoutly  to  be  wished  " 


250  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

— Concurrence  on  the  matter  of  Rev.  .Tno.  Murray  asked — Colby  and 
plan  of  union — Supplies  asked — "Void" — A  change  coming  over — 
Toil — Letters  of  inquiry — Toombs — Oliver — Advice  craved — D.  An- 
nan demits — Attends  Synod — Called  October  19,  1791,  A.  R.  Presby- 
tery of  New  England — Clamour — Dog-killers— Praise  silenced  in 
families — Imputation — A  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Huntington 
of  Conn.,  for  his  defence  of  it — Supplies  asked — Rev.  D.  Annan's 
troubles — Requests  a  dismission,  granted — A  Synodical  Convention 
called — Grafton  Presbytery  absent,  and  no  further  notice  of  them  is 
to  be  taken  by  the  others — The  A.  R.  and  fragments  of  the  P.  at 
Eastward  eventually  "coalesced" — Grafton  an  amateur  Presbytery — 
Jona.  Brown  as  colleague  to  Ewer,  remains  of  first  Derry  session,  ask 
admission  to  the  A.  R.  Presbytery  of  New  England,  and  are  admitted 
— Oliver  installed  in  Pelhani — Instructions  asked — Toou)bs  called  to 
Newburyport — No  attendance  at  Synod  for  three  years — A  source  of 
grief — Numbers  and  not  purity  now  in  the  A.  R.  Presbytery,  hence  a 
"coalescence" — The  terms  of  union — Four  parallel  R.  R.'s  in  Iowa, 
from  Cheyenne  one  track — Similar  here  at  the  close  of  this  quarter  of 
a  century*  (in  1793)  with  Presbyterianism  in  New  P^ngland — Now  one 
Presbytery — Introduction— Growth  while  the  early  Ministers  survived 
— Yet  they  were  not  all  faithful — John  Morrison  a  disgrace  and 
David  Annan  nothing  better— Deposed — Notices  of  him— The  Bible 
and  family  worship  preserved  religion  (under  God)  in  Peterboro  for 
50  years — A  dark  period — A  noble  testimony — Periods  of  existence 
of  Presbyteries — A  working  Presbytery. 

We  have  seen  that  about  a.  d.  1760,  those  Presbyterians 
in  New  York  City  who  endeavored  to  receive,  observe,  keep 
pure  and  entire  the  worship  "  of  God  in  psalmody,"  were 
sneered  at  as  "  incurably  dissatisfied,"  and  that  the  Revs. 
Alex.  Gellatly  and  John  Mason  ministered  to  them.  This 
dissatisfaction  was  from  the  city  carried  to  the  towns  in 
northeastern  New  Y^ork  by  emigrants  from  Scotland  and 
Ireland.  One  of  the  oldest  of  the  pioneer  churches  in 
that  region  is  that  of  Argyle,  Washington  co. 

In  1764,  George  III.  granted  to  Archibald  Campbell, 
Duncan  Reid,  Neil  Shaw,  Alex.  McNaughton,  and  Neil 
Gillespie  about  47,000  acres,  for  about  140  Presbyterian 
emigrants,  who  came  soon  afterwards  from  Scotland. 
500  acres  were  reserved  for  the  gospel  and  for  schools. 
The  town  was  organized  and  named  about  1771. 

In  1764  the  Rev.  Thomas  Clarke,  M.  D.,  came  from 
Ballibay,  Ireland.  Part  of  his  colony  of  300  people  went 
to  Long  Cane,  in  South  Carolina,  while  he,  with  the  rest, 
in  1767,  settled  in  Salem,  N.  Y.  He  had  the  honor  of 
first  raising  the  standard  of  Presbyterianism  in  that  region, 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  251 

none  being  farther  north  at  that  time.  He  left  Salem 
about  1783,  and  went  to  Long  Cane,  where  he  died. 

The  town  of  Salem  bordering  on  the  State  of  Vermont, 
commmiication,  such  as  was  attainable  then,  was  in  due 
time  opened  up.  We  have  also  to  remember,  that  "  pre- 
vious to  the  American  Revolution,  that  part  of  the  coun- 
try known  as  '  Vermont,'  vv^as  called  '  the  New  Hampshire 
Grants,'  and  was  claimed  by  both  New  Hampshire  and 
New  York.  The  General  Assembly  of  New  York  divided 
it  into  four  counties,  two  on  the  west  and  two  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Green  mountains." 

As  population  pushed  westward  through  and  from  New 
Hampshire,  up  the  Connecticut  river  into  these  "  Grants," 
Presbyterians  were  sandwiched  in  among  other  sects,  and 
Peterboro  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  State  was,  as 
early  as  1749,  settled  by  emigrants  from  Londonderry. 

They  built  a  house  of  worship  in  1752,  and  their  town 
was  incorporated  in  1760.  After  making  varied  efforts, 
and  obtaining  some  temporary  supply  of  preaching,  on 
March  18th,  1766,  "Article  4th  in  the  town  warrant  made 
provision  for  public  action  in  regard  to  the  settlement  of 
John  Morrison."  As  the  first  settled  minister  of  the  town 
he  was  ordained  there  on  November  26th,  1766. 

His  wretched  career  we  have  already  noticed ;  and  he 
was  succeeded  b}"  the  Rev.  David  Annan,  who  was  ordained 
by  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York  "  at  Wallkill, 
N.  Y.,  in  October,  1778,  with  Peterboro  for  his  destina- 
tion."^ 

This  congregation,  on  October  1st,  1778,  asked  and  ob- 
tained a  dismission  from  the  S3mod  of  New  England,  and 
on  uniting  with  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York, 
they  were  brought  into  ecclesiastical  intercourse  with  those 
beyond  "  the  Green  mountains,"  who  had  the  "  incurable 
dissatisfaction."  After  the  death  of  the  Rev.  David  Mc- 
Gregor (on  May  30th,  1777),  his  congregation,  being  as  yet 
"  incurably  dissatisfied  "  with  hymnology,  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  obtain  a  pastor.  As  the  colony,  which  some  fifteen 
years  before  removed  to  Truro,  Nova  "Scotia,  had  procured 
one  from  Great  Britain  ;  to  them  they  made  application, 
in  hopes  that  they  could  inform  them  how  to  proceed  with 
success*.  From  that  quarter  they  obtained  no  relief.  After 
continuing  a  vacancy  for  six  years,  they  made  an  unani- 


252  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

mous  choice  of  Mr.  William  Morrison,  a  licentiate  of  the 
Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York,  and  placed  themselves 
under  its  care. 

The  Associate  Reformed  Synod  was  formed  on  October 
1st,  1782,  at  Philadelphia,  and  consisted  of  three  Presby- 
teries, the  third  one  extending  into  New  England.  With 
it  the  Presbytery  of  Salem,  Mass.,  were  desirous  to  unite. 
They  wrote  to  Dr.  Clarke  at  Salem,  N.  Y.,  the  answer  to 
which  application  expressed  a  desire  of  said  union  and  a 
promise  to  submit  the  proposal  to  his  Presbytery. 

While  negotiations  were  in  progress,  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Taggart,  as  noticed,  informed  the  others  by  a  letter,  that 
he  had  made  overtures  to  the  Associate  Reformed  Presby- 
tery "for  a  junction  with  them,  as  far  as  may  be  without 
a  dismission  from  this  body,"  and  this  was  deemed  to  be 
"  irregular  and  unpresbyterial,"  as  hopes  of  a  union  were 
now  entertained. 

He  was  allowed  to  depart  in  peace  and  in  good  stand- 
ing, yet  the  Salem  Presbytery  did  not  dismiss  him  till 
June  2d,  1785.  Hence,  at  Londonderry  the  Presbytery, 
composed  of  Rev.  David  Annan  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Tag- 
gart, ministers,  with  Elders  George  Duncan,  of  London- 
derry;  David  Harours,  of  Coleraine,  and  Robert  Morrison, 
of  Peterboro,  ordained  and  installed  the  Rev.  William 
Morrison,  on  February  Tith,  1783.  A  p?'o  re  vata  meeting 
was  held  in  the  same  place,  on  May  19th,  1783,  in  which, 
with  the  others,  the  Rev.  Robert  Annan  was  associated. 
By  the  court  "  Mr.  Morrison's  ordination,  though  deemed 
to  be  irregular,  was  approved  as  valid  and  constitutional." 

"  Mr.  Robert  Annan  then  laid  the  situation  of  the  con- 
gregation in  Boston  before  the  Presbytery,  as  being  desti- 
tute of  the  powers  of  government."  He  ''was  appointed 
to  moderate  in  an  election  of  elders  in  that  congregation, 
and  to  admit  them  as  he  saw  fit,"  and  it  was  voted  to  de- 
lay his  installation  till  after  the  next  meeting.  This  man 
and  that  congregation  now  require  oi*r  attention. 

He  was  born  at  Cu])ar  of  Fife,  in  Scotland,  in  1742,  and 
came  to  America  in  1761.  At  the  commenceruent  of  the 
Revolutionary  war  he  was  settled  at  or  near  Little  Britain, 
now  Walden,  on  the  Wallkill,  N.  Y.  When  Boston  was 
besieged  and  reduced  nearly  to  starvation  by  the  British, 
it  was  proposed  in  his  congregation  to  send  to  them  relief. 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  253 

A  meeting  was  called  and  held  in  his  church.  A  lawyer 
endeavored  by  his  eloquence  to  shew  to  the  people  their 
danger  and  prospective  ruin,  if  they  should  thus  aggravate 
the  displeasure  of  England.  The  "  Scotch  "  of  the  Scotch- 
man began  to  boil.  He  spoiled  the  oration  and  drove  the 
orator  into  insignificance.  Listening  to  the  plausibilities 
uttered  for  a  short  time,  he  sprang  to  his  feet,  crying, 
*'  toot,  man,  we  have  had  enough  of  that,"  and,  namfng  a 
prominent  man  present,  lie  exclaimed,  "All  of  you  who  are 
willing  to  send  aid  to  our  brethren  in  Boston  follow  Mr. 

out  to  the  green,  and  all  who  are  against  doing  so  will 

remain  in  the  house  and  hear  the  squire."  The  house  was 
immediately  emptied,  and  the  speaker  was  left  alone  in 
his  glory.  Aid  was  sent,  and  the  name  of  Robert  Annan 
became  known  in  Boston.  When  visiting  his  brother  in 
Peterboro,  and  extending  his  journey  to  Boston,  he  was  by 
the  public,  and  especially  by  the  Presbyterians,  cordially 
received.  As  the  congregation  in  Long  Lane,  after  nine- 
teen months  of  earnest  labor  for  the  services  of  the  Rev. 
John  Murray,  had,  in  1776,  entered  their  declinature,  and 
were  yet  smitten  with  the  "incurable  dissatisfaction,"  so 
soon  as  they  had  opportunity  of  hearing  the  Rev.  Robert 
Annan,  they  made  application  for  his  services  as  follows : 

Copy  of  the  Letter  dated  September  11th,  1782,  addressed  by 
William  McNeilU  Andrew  Black,  Robert  Weir,  Hector  Mc- 
Neill, and  Simon  Elliot,  a  Committee  of  the  Congregation  in 
Long  Lane,  to  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York. 

"  To  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York,  to  meet  at 
Peterburough,  the  3d  Wednesday  in  September,  1782 : 

"  Reverend  Gentlemen, 

"  Convinced  of  the  necessity  of  a  Religious  Life,  and 
dwelling  in  a  Land  where  the  means  of  grace  are  plenti- 
fully enjoyed  by  others,  we  ardently  wish  to  see  ourselves 
upon  a  footing  with  our  fellow-Christians,  in  observing  the 
institutions  of  the  Gospel. 

"And  whereas  the  preaching  of  the  word  hath  been  made 
(through  the  divine  blessing)  the  means  of  convincing  and 
converting  sinners,  and  building  them  up  in  the  ways  of 
virtue,  and  Holiness,  it  is  our  earnest  desire  to  provide 


254  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM  ^ 

ourselves  with  these  means,  which  God  has  always  been 
pleased  to  continue  and  bless,  for  the  spiritual  good  and 
edification  of  his  churcli,  firmly  persuaded  that  our  wait- 
ing upon  Inm  in  the  way  of  his  own  appointment  is  not 
only  our  duty,  but  the  surest  way  to  obtain  his  blessing 
here,  and  of  being  prepared  for  a  Blessed  Eternity  with 
himself  in  Glory. 

"  For  this  salutary  purpose  we  have  (we  trust  in  God), 
by  the  special  guidance  of  divine  providence,  fixed  our 
choice  upon  the  Rev.  Mr.  Robert  Annan,  to  Administer 
the  word  and  ordinances  of  the  Gospel  amongst  us ;  Humbly 
hoping  that  the  Lord  will  favor  tliis  our  choice,  with  his  di- 
vine presence  and  Blessing,  and  make  him  the  happ}^  instru- 
ment of  collecting  our  dispersed  people  (who  have  been  long 
wandering  like  sheep  without  a  shepherd)  and  reviving 
once  more  the  principles  of  piety  and  religion  amongst  us. 

"  From  the  good  character  we  had  of  this  Rev.  Gentle- 
man before  he  came  to  us,  from  the  knowledge  we  have 
had  of  himself  since  our  acquaintance  with  him,  and  from 
every  idea  we  have  been  able  to  form  of  a  Gospel  Minister, 
we  plainly  see  the  suitableness  there  is  between  his  abilities 
and  our  necessities. 

"  Wherefore,  having  stood  single  and  unconnected  with 
any  of  the  Presb^'teries  in  this  Country  for  several  years 
past,  and  finding  tliat  Mr.  Annan  still  inclines  to  continue 
his  connection  with  your  reverend  body,  we  find  ourselves 
impelled  by  every  rational  motive  to  make  our  application 
to  you  at  this  time,  earnestly  Beseeching  you  to  take  the 
case  of  our  society  into  your  serious  consideration.  That  our 
dissolution  as  a  Worshipping  Assembly  may  be  prevented, 
which  otherwise  must  surely  happen,  unless  the  Lord  be 
pleased  to  bless  us  very  soon  with  a  faithful  minister. 

"  We  are  persuaded,  That  our  necessities  will  plead  for  us, 
as  well  as  our  danger  of  falling  into  nothing  as  a  society,  if 
our  present  request  be  not  attended  to,  and  we  hope  these 
considerations  will  induce  you  to  use  your  interest  and  in- 
fluence with  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Annan,  and  all  concerned,  to 
bring  about  his  settlement  with  us  at  Boston. 

"  Upon  this  express  design,  we  have  sent  our  trusty 
friends  Hector  McNiell,  Simon  Elliot  and  Francis  Wright, 
or  any  two  of  them,  as  our  commissioners  to  confer  with 
you,  and  conclude  on  such  measures  as  may  be  thought 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  255 

most  likely  to  effect  this  purpose  in  the  best  and  speediest 
manner  possible. 

"  We  are,  Gentlemen,  with  sincerity  and  Brotherly  Love, 
for  ourselves,  and  on  behalf  of  the  Presbyterian  Con- 
gregation in  Long  Lane,  in  the  town  of  Boston, 
"  Your  Friends  and  Humble  Servants, 
"  William  McNiell,    Andrew  Black,     Simon  Elliot, 
"  Robert  Weir,  Hector  McNiell,      Committee. 

"  Boston,  ,Scp^.  11th,  1782. 
"  To  the  Rev'd  Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York,  to  sit 
at  Peterburough  3d  Wednesday  this  instant  Sept'r." 

This  Presbytery  on  that  day  received  them,  and  they 
were  "Associate  "  Presbyterians  for  a  few  weeks,  and  then 
this  congregation  formed  one  of  those  who,  on  October 
31st,  1782,  entered  into  the  union  with  the  Reformed  Pres- 
byterians, in  harmony  with  the  terms  of  union  agreed  to 
at  Pequa,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  13th  day  of  the  previous 
June. 

Thus,  the  Long  Lane  real  estate,  the  gift  of  John  Little 
in  1735,  became  legitimately  the  property  of  the  new  de- 
nomination, as  the  congregation  became  a  part  of  the  As- 
sociate Reformed  church. 

When  the  Synod  was,  on  November  1st,  1782,  arranged 
into  Presbyteries,  the  third  embraced  Rev.  Messrs.  Thomas 
Clarke,  John  Mason,  Robert  Annan,  David  Annan,  minis- 
ters with  their  ruling  elders.  It  was  constituted  first  in 
Philadelphia  on  November  1st.  This  Presbytery  met  at 
Londonderry  on  February  3  2th,  and  ordained  Mr.  William 
Morrison;  and  at  the  same  place,  on  May  19th,  1783,  "  Mr. 
Robert  Annan  was  appointed  to  moderate  in  an  election 
of  elders." 

In  supplying  the  pulpit  during  summer,  he  made  the 
discovery  that  they  were  in  some  "  danger  of  falling  into 
nothing  as  a  societ}^"  The  thirty  who  would  not  join  in 
the  declinature  were  probably  scattered ;  they  had  been 
without  a  pastor  for  ten  years,  including  a  seven  years' 
war,  which  brought  in  a  flood  of  immorality,  and  were 
"  destitute  of  the  powers  of  government,"  having  no  ruling 
elders,  Avhile  the  office  and  position  of  the  Precentor 
(facing,  in  his  desk,  the  congregation)  had  been  exchanged 
by  the  assimilation  of  the  juvenile  mind  to  their  congre- 


256  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

gational  surroundings,  and,  as  he  stated  it,  "  a  band  of 
conciliators  "  placed  themselves  at  the  opposite  end  of  the 
building,  behind  the  audience,  and  when  he,  in  Divine 
worship,  would  announce  a  psalm,  they  would  sing  ac- 
cording to  their  own  ''  tastes,"  a  portion  of  the  139  imita- 
tions of  Dr.  Watts'.  Beside  this,  a  few  of  the  families  had 
become  com])aratively  wealthy,  and  the  parents  did  not 
discourage  their  youth  from  promiscuous  dancing,  all 
which  were  a  grief  to  the  pious  part  of  the  church.  Nor 
was  this  all.  Not  a  few  cases  of  anti-nuptial  offence  pol- 
luted the  church,  and  when,  for  the  honor  of  Christ,  he 
and  the  pious  part  of  the  congregation  thought  that  they 
who  had  thus  "  sinned  "  should  be  "  rebuked  before  all, 
that  others  also  may  fear"  (1  Tim.  v.  20);  such  persons, 
who  had  ''  dishonored  their  own  bodies  between  them- 
selves "  (Rom.  i.  24),  became  "  hardened  through  the  de- 
ceitfulness  of  sin,"  and  were  unwilling,  not  only  to  submit 
publicly  to  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  but  even  to  be 
rebuked  before  the  session  in  private.  In  short,  to  ac- 
knowledge that  they  had  sinned  at  all. 

Finding,  that  in  such  cases  "  the  word  of  the  Lord  had 
not  free  course,"  and  that  the  "  Holy  One  "  was  not  "  glori- 
fied," in  a  year  or  two  his  pastorate  became  less  pleasant 
and  change  increasingly  desirable. 

On  revisiting  Wallkill,  and  saying  to  one  of  his  former 
elders  (a  Mr.  McClure),  ''  I  wish  3- ou  would  come  with  me 
and  serve  as  an  elder  in  Boston,"  he  was  answered  thus : 
"  because  you  have  made  a  fool  of  yourself,  that  is  no  rea- 
son why  I  sliould  make  one  of  myself"  "  The  course  of 
this  world,  the  deceitfulness  of  riches  and  the  lust  of  other 
things  had  entered  in  and  choked  the  word  until  it  had 
become  (extensively)  unfruitful."  While  his  eccentricities 
were  not  a  few,  he  was  ''  a  master  in  Israel "  in  the  pulpit, 
declared  to  be,  during  his  stay,  the  ablest,  or,  at  least,  one 
of  the  ablest  divines  in  Boston.  He  was  "  held  highly  in 
love  for  his  work's  sake." 

When  the  Presbytery  met,  according  to  appointment  at 
Peterboro,  on  September  2d,  1783,  "A  letter  from  Boston, 
empowering  the  Rev.  David  Annan  to  act  as  a  commis- 
sioner for  and  in  behalf  of  the  church,  as  also  an  earnest 
request  of  the  society  for  the  speedy  settlement  of  Rev. 
Robert  Annan,"  werfe  read.     ' 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  257 

In  answer  it  was  "  voted,"  that  his  instaUment  be  on  the 
25th  inst. ;  that  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  be  dis- 
pensed on  the  next  Sahhath,  and  that  the  Rev.  David 
Annan  preach  the  instalhnent  sermon  and  perform  the 
other  official  duties,  while  Mr.  Morrison  was  to  preach  in 
the  afternoon.  This  was  performed  at  date,  and  he  jDro- 
ceeded  to  discharge  conscientiously  his  official  duties. 

At  this  stated  meeting  (September  2d)  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Clarke,  David  Annan  and  Wilham  Morrison  were  present 
with  their  elders,  and  a  ])eculiar  item  of  business  was  to 
"invite  the  Rev.  Samuel  Taggart "  (who  had  assisted  the 
Rev.  David  Annan  on  Februar^y  12th*  to  ordain  Mr.  "Wil- 
liam Morrison)  "and  his  elder,  Daniel  Donaldson,  to  sit 
as  correspondents." 

A  petition  from  New  Perth  (Salem,  N.  Y.)  requestinj^ 
the  installation  of  the  Rev.  James  Proudfit,  was  read ;  and 
a  request  from  Albany,  from  persons  who  were  not  of  the 
Associate  Reformed  persuasion,  asking  the  constituting 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Clarke,  INI.  D.,  as  their  pastor.;  and  one 
from  Fleming's  Creek,  requesting  supply  by  Dr.  Clarke. 
''Resolved,  To  supply  Ryegate  and  Barnet,  if  possible." 

The  installation  of  the  Rev.  James  Proudfit  was  ap- 
jwinted  to  take  place  at  New  Perth,  N.  Y.,  on  October  22d, 

1783,  and  "  Dr.  Clarke  to  supph'  in  Albany  as  far  as  it  is 
consistent  with  his  duty  to  this  body." 

At  the  annual  meeting  at  "  Londonderry,  September  2d, 

1784,  Mr.  Morrison  proposed  to  go  a  long  journey,  and  re- 
quested some  supply  for  his  pulpit."  On  behalf  of  the 
committee  of  the  town  of  Litchfield,  N.  H..  Mr.  ^IcQuistou 
asked  preaching.  A  vote  of  the  town  of  Bedlbrd  was  read, 
asking  ministerial  labor,  and  a  IMr.  Whipple  (whose 
name  does  not  previously  appear)  "  was  appointed  to  sup- 
ply the  first  two  places  alternately  for  six  Sabbaths." 

Also  ordered,  tliat  "Mr.  Morrison,  when  at  the  South- 
ward, endeavor  to  obtain  supply  for  Bedford."  "  Presby- 
tery earnestly  recommended  Messrs.  R.  Annan,  Taggart, 
Proudfit  and  Clarke  to  attend  the  next  meeting  and  press 
Synod  to  write  in  a  synodical  capacity  to  any  sound  judi- 
cature in  Scotland  or  in  Ireland,  for  a  supply  of  ministers, 
or  young  preachers,  as  in  this  part  of  the  world  '  the  har- 
vest is  plenteous,  and  the  laborers  are  few.'" 

On  his  own  application^  Mr.  James  Anderson,  previ- 
17 


258  HISTORY    OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ously  in  connection  with  another  Presbytery,  was  received 
as  a  student  of  divinity  and  ''  recommended  to  read  Owen, 
Boston,  Hervey  and  the  Erskine's  writings,  to  study  with 
Mr.  iMorrison  and  prepare  prescribed  'trials.'" 

At  a  meeting  in  Peterboro,  March  2d,  1785,  petitions  for 
supply  were  received  from  lienniker  and  Antrim.  [ 

His  health  failing  him,  the  Rev.  R.  Annan  stated ^that  ! 
lie  purposed  to  go  soutli  for  the  improvement  of  it,  and  to  J 
attend  the  next  meeting  of  Synod.  \- 

On  his  request,  during  his  absence,  Mr.  Whipple  was  [ 
appointed  to  supply  in  Boston.  Proposed  to  ask  Synod 
to  set  aside  its  rulef  "That  members  be  received  from  any 
Presbytery  of  any  other  Synod  than  the  Associate  Re- 
formed Synod,  simply  by  Presbyteries,  without  synodical 
action,  as  such  rule  docs  not  appear  to  be  for  general  edifi- 
cation." The  Rev.  John  Houston  was  admitted  as  a  cor- 
respondent. 

June  12th,  1785, p?'o  re  nata,  at  Londonderry.  Present — 
Annans,  Morrison  and  Houston. 

Mr.  Anderson  delivered  parts  of  his  "  trials."     The  Rev. 

R.  Annan  was  appointed  to  Avrite  to  the  Rev.  Mr. of 

Londonderry,  Ireland,  for  his  removal  to  Ryegate  and 
Barnet.  Oii  February  2oth,  1786,  the  aggrieved  Groton 
people,  wliosj  case  in  connection  with  another  Presbytery, 
we  have  seen,  were  represented  by  four  commissioners  to 
defend  said  society  against  any  accusations  which  might 
be  brouglit  against  it,  for  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Chap- 
lin and  the  Congregationalist  church  there,  was  just  read. 
Said  Commissioners  also  requested  a  recommendation  that 
the  Presbyterians  might  be  set  off  as  a  Poll  parish  in  Gro- 
ton. International  law  being  considered  as  of  a  very 
high  character,  so  tiieir  interdenominational  case  received 
full  attention,  and  they  then  "  voted.  That  tlie  letter  from 
the  Congregational  minister  and  church  in  Groton  con- 
tained nothing  of  any  force  or  validity  against  the  Presby- 
terian society  of  said  town,  and  as  to  the  letter  from  Mr. 
Dana,  it  contained  a  favorable  representation  of  said 
society  to  the  Presbytery." 

"  Said  committee  of  Groton  being  neither  confronted  by- 
accusers  nor  witnesses  against  them,  voted,  that  said  soci- 
ety be  continued  under  our  care  and  inspection  according 
to  a  former  vote ;  that  they  tell  their  numbers  and  be  rec- 


I 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  259 

ommended  to  the  civil  authorities  to  be  set  off  as  a  poll 
parish ;  that  the  Rev.  R.  Annan  preach  to  them  from  time 
to  time,  and  that  our  papers  and  minutes  anent  their 
matters  be  sent  to  Synod  for  advice."  To  them  Mr.  Hous- 
ton was  also  to  preach.  AV^ith  tne  unknown,  Presbyter}^ 
dealt  summarily  thus :  "  Dissolved  connection  with  Mr. 
Whipple."  "Mr.  Morrison  to  supply  Bedford  as  much  as 
possible." 

While  the  Rev.  R.  Annan  was  busy  in  Massachusetts 
in  his  own  Presbytery  and  among  his  own  people,  he  also 
found  time  to  proof-read  and  issue  Bath  Kol  for  "the 
Presbytery  at  the  Eastward,"  to  attend  other  church  courts 
and  conventions,  yet  he  did  not  find  it  in  his  case  to  be  as 
it  was  said  a  century  before,  "  Boston  is  the  paradise  of 
ministers."  His  people  continued  to  be  divided — the 
richer  part  caring  less  about  sound  doctrine  and  pure  wor- 
ship, which  the  poorer  portion  of  the  people  prayed  for 
and  craved.  Yet  he  said  both  parties  used  him  well. 
His  eccentricities  were  such  that  of  him  it  was  said : 
"  When  he  was  in  the  pulpit,  it  was  a  pity  he  should  ever 
come  out;  and  when  out,  it  was  almost  a  pity  he  should 
ever  go  in."  He  did  not,  it  seems,  understand  human  na- 
ture well.  During  his  pastorate.  Captain  Alexander  Wil- 
son died  abroad,  and  the  owners  of  his  ship,  on  hearing  it, 
thought  it  best  to  have  her  pastor  bear  the  solemn  tidings 
to  Mrs.  Wilson,  a  daughter  of  the  late  Rev.  John  Moore- 
heacl.  This  he  agreed  to  do.  As  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Cos- 
sington  (in  1849),  told  me :  "  He  came  when  we  were  at 
dinner.  One  of  us  girls  "  (three  sisters)  "  saw  him  through 
the  window,  and  said, '  There's  Mr.  Annan.'  Another  said, 
'  He  might  have  manners  enough  not  to  come  at  dinner- 
time.' But  mother  said, '  There's  news.'  The  mother  and 
daughters  left  the  table  and  met  him  in  the  hall.  Mother, 
fearing  that  something  was  wrong,  inquired  at  once,  '  Is 
there  any  news  from  the  ship,  Mr.  Annan  ? '  and  received 
the  overwhelming  response,  '  Yes,  you're  a  widow  ! '  No 
patient,  wise,  soothing,  sjmipathizing  introduction,  but  the 
worst  first. 

"All  entering  the  parlor  together,  and  there  giving  ex- 
pression to  their  sorrow,  the  dinner  was  not  thought  of  for 
a  long  time.  When  the}"  returned  thc}^  found  that  the 
dog  had  gone  up  and  taken  their  lamb  below  the  table, 


260  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

and  of  it  had  made  his  meal — which  incident  had  riveted 
it  in  the  memory  of  the  narrator  for  some  sixty-four* 
years." 

He  assuredly  possessed  but  a  little  of  that  sympathy 
which  is  akin  to  common  sense,  for  in  this  case  he  acted 
with  the  best  intentions. 

The  shrewd  observers  in  his  former  chari^e,  with  whom 
he  kept  a  friendly  correspondence,  saw  that,  while  he  went 
from  them  partly  in  order  to  obtain  an  education  for  his 
family,  who,  he  claimed,  had  a  riglit  to  higher  instruc- 
tion than  they  could  enjoy  on  the  Wallkill,  entertained 
hopes  that  if  he  were  not  successful  amidst  the  refinements 
of  Boston,  they  could  again  have  him  as  their  pastor. 
According!}^,  on  February  26th,  1786,  "  a  call  to  the  Rev. 
R.  Annan  from  Wallkill  and  Little  Britain  was  laid  before 
Presbytery,"  The  consideration  of  it  was  "  deferred  till 
next  meeting,  and  the  congregation  of  Boston  were  notified 
to  show  reasons,  if  any  they  have,  why  sucli  call  should 
not  be  sustained." 

"Voted,  that  tlie  Rev.  R.  Annan,  in  case  of  a  voyage  to 
Scotland,  be  impowered  to  apply  to  any  sound  ecclesiastical 
judicature  in  that  land  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a 
number  of  young  preachers,  such  as  shall  appear  to  be 
well  qualified  to  promote  pure  and  vital  religion  and  evan- 
gelical doctrine  in  America,  and  that  he  use  his  best  en- 
deavors for  that  purpose;  and  also,  that  he  be  further  im- 
powered to  give  a  fair  representation  of  our  churches  in 
America,  and  use  his  best  efforts  to  accomplish  a  recon- 
ciliation between  our  Synod  and  that  of  our  brethren  in 
Edinburgh." 

These  matters,  of  deep  interest  to  the  denomination, 
were  not  effected,  as  the  journey  was  not  performed. 

At  Coleraine,  on  May  10th,  1786,  the  Presbytery  was 
constituted  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Taggart.  Present,  R.  Annan, 
Jas.  Proudfit,  S.  Taggart,  D.  Annan,  Wm.  Morrison  (and 
the  Rev.  John  Houston  as  a  correspondent),  with  their 
elders. 

Salem,  N.  Y.,  requested  the  installation  there  of  the  Rev. 
Jas.  Proudfit,  and  further  asked  for  "  an  overture  from 
Presbytery  to  the  next  Synod  upon  church  communion," 

*  Mrs.  C.  died  in  Maiden,  Mass.,  in  1850,  set.  89. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  261 

and,  as  if  this  were  not  enough,  "they  desired  Presbytery 
to  petition  Synod  to  set  aside  their  present  constitu- 
tion." 

A  petition  was  presented  from  Black  Creek  (now  Hebron, 
N.  Y.)  to  be  a  distinct  congregation. 

Lieut.  Jas.  Dickson  appeared  from  Middlefield  and 
Chester,  Mass.,  asking  supply,  and  that  said  places  be 
taken  under  the  care  of  Presbytery. 

Salem,  it  was  ordered,  must  "  pay  up  Mr.  Proudfit's 
arrears  before  he  be  installed  there." 

The  question,  ''  What  is  necessary  to  entitle  a  person  to 
church  privileges  ?  "  they  answered,  "  Not  merely  a  credible 
appearance  of  a  man's  being  exercised  unto  godliness  in 
itself,  but  also  soundness  in  the  faith,  a  competency  of 
knowledge,  a  willingness  to  submit  to  the  discipline  of 
Christ  in  his  church,  with  a  regularity  of  life  and  conver- 
sation." 

"  Voted,  Not  to  petition  Synod  to  set  aside  their  present 
constitution." 

"  It  must  needs  be  that  offences  come,"  and  difficulties 
had  arisen  in  Coleraine  congregation  on  account  that  their 
meeting-house  was  not  built  in  the  most  central  place.  In 
these  it  would  appear  that  the  pastor  had  become  involved, 
for  he  "  assigned  reasons  for  a  dissolution  of  the  connection 
with  his  congregation." 

Those  dissatisfied  were  advised  to  return,  and  ]\Ir.  Tag- 
gart  was  directed  to  preach  to  them  as  equally  as  prac- 
ticable. The  people  were  also  to  be  notified  ''and  ex- 
horted to  do  their  duty  "  to  him. 

While  travelling  was  still  difficult  (as,  eleven  years  before, 
it  took  seven  days  to  carry  the  news  of  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill  to  New  York),  ministers  and  elders  on  church 
business  were  then  usually  in  earnest,  and  journeys  which 
would  at  times  appear  insuperable  to  their  feeble  successors 
would  be  performed  with  promptitude.  Thus,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  JNIorrison  was  appointed  to  travel  from  Londonderr}^ 
N.  H.,  or  at  least  from  Coleraine,  Mass.,  to  supply  Wall- 
kill,  N.  Y.,  on  tlie  third  Sabbath  of  that  month  (May),  a 
distance  of  nearly  two*  hundred  miles,  over  mountains, 
through  swamps,  and  in  paths  through  the  wilderness; 
while  on  May  11th,  178(3,  Captain  James  Wilkin,  elder, 
appeared  as  a  commissioner  from  Wallkill  and  Little  Bri- 


262  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

tain  to  prosecute  their  recall  for  Mr.  Annan.  That  he 
could  be  induced  to  leave  Boston  was  extensivel}^  under- 
stood, for  at  this  meeting  the  congregation  of  Bedford 
made  petition  to  have  him  on  trial  as  a  candidate  for  the 
modest  period  of  only  "  eight  weeks." 

He  does  not  express  determination,  in  view  of  the  action 
or  inaction  of  his  pastoral  charge,  to  remain ;  and  remem- 
bering it  may  be  not  a  little  worry  in  the  discharge  of 
duty  among  his  former  flock,  he  feels  no  eager  desire  to 
return,  especially  as  it  would  deprive  his  family  of  their 
educational  opportunities. 

The  advantage  of  a  Superior  Court  is  now  realized. 
These  perplexing  local  issues  are  now  avoided,  and  after 
"the  call  was  considered,  voted,  that  the  consideration  of 
his  removal  from  Boston  to  Wallkill  and  Little  Britain  be 
referred  to  the  ensuing  meeting  of  the  Synod." 

He  had  found,  with  every  other  minister  of  his  persua- 
sion possessed  of  positive  convictions,  who  has  tried  the 
experiment  in  Boston,  that  the  Presbyterian  polity  is  (and 
is  alone)  warranted  by  the  Bible  ;  that  it  is  not  simply  the 
best  expedient ;  and  that  he  must  "  speak  (to  the  people) 
the  gospel  of  God  with  much  contention  "  (1  Thess.  ii.  2). 
When  the  matter  came  before  Synod,  they  limited  to  him 
a  time,  at  which  period,  if  he  did  not  accept  the  call  frora 
his  former  charge,  he  should  be  considered  still  to  con- 
tinue to  be  the  pastor  of  Long  Lane  congregation. 

In  the  meantime,  he  was  providentially  relieved  of  the 
difficulty  by  receiving  a  call  from  a  congregation  in  Phila- 
delphia. With  the  varied  inducements  for  a  removal 
which  we  have  noticed,  he  had  had  but  little  encourage- 
ment in  his  labors,  but  few  additions  to  his  church-roll. 
He  had  baptized  but  two  or  three  children  and  solemnized 
but  two  marriages  in  three  years.  Of  "consolation  in 
Christ,  comfort  of  love,  fellowship  of  the  spirit,  bowels  and 
mercies,"  among  them,  there  was  not  enough  to  "fulfil  his 
joy,  that  they  be  like  minded,  having  the  same  love,  being 
of  one  accord,  of  one  mind;  in  lowliness  of  mind  esteem- 
ing each  other  better  than  themselves."  Too  much  that 
was  done  by  them  and  among  them  was  only  "  through 
strife  or  vainglory."  He  was  doubtless  glad  to  be  removed 
from  them  in  an  orderly  manner  and  by  a  providential 
way.  They  could  no  longer,  with  their  parents  and  grands 
parents,  sing : 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND,  26^    ' 

"  Behold  how  good  a  thing  it  is, 
And  how  becoming  well, 
Together  such  as  brethren  are 
In  unity  to  dwell." — Ps.  cxxxiii. 

For,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  They  sang  and  they  sang,  till 
they  sung  all  their  piety  away,  and  he  had  to  come  away 
and  leave  them!  "  He  was  by  no  means  the  only  Presby- 
terian minister  who  has  realized  the  same  bitter  exjDerience 
in  New  England.  Where  the  divine  hedges  of  government 
and  discipline  are  not  kept  "entire,"  other  "fruits"  than 
those  "of  righteousness,  which  are  by  Jesus  Christ,  to  the 
glory  of  God,"  speedily  grow.  So  it  was  in  Long  Lane  in 
1786. 

During  the  past  thirteen  years,  since  the  death  of  their 
first  pastor,  especially  during  the  seven  years'  war,  dilapi- 
dation increased  with  time.  Their  former  elders,  who 
were  men  of  understanding,  had  fallen  asleep,  or  had  left 
the  town,  and  the  office  among  them  had  not  been  well 
filled.  So  long  had  "  the  faces  of  the  elders  "  not  been 
"  honored,"  that  the  office  became  despised,  and  the  saying 
became  law,  that  "the  elders  were  only  good  to  settle 
quarrels,  and  that  the  minister  and  the  old  men  could  do 
that." 

Consequently  (as  Mr.  Annan  left  for  Philadelphia),  those  \ 
who  had  imbibed  Congregational  ideas  passed  into  the  \ 
ascendant,  and  about  August  4, 1786,  "  at  a  meeting  of  the 
proprietors  and  others  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  Long 
Lane,  Robert  Wier,  Moderator — Voted  unanimously,  that 
this  church  and  congregation  do  embrace  the  Congrega- 
tional mode  of  government,  and  that  all  difficulties  in  the 
church  hereafter  be  settled  by  the  ministers  or  male  mem- 
bers of  the  church." 

The  gay  and  thoughtless  were  now  triumphant,  while 
the  pious  were  grieved,  to  see  only  the  "  rubbish  and  the 
stones  "  of  a  church  which  at  one  time  had  been  watched 
over  by  a  session  of  twelve  elders.  The  trust  established 
by  John  Little  was  now  perverted  by  schism,  and  the 
Presb^^tery  had  not  in  it  vitality  (for  it  soon  had  trouble 
with  David  Annan  and  others)  to  deal  with  the  case,  while 
for  them,  in  the  civil  courts,  there  was,  as  Presbyterians, 
no  redress  ;  they  were  from  their  first  appearance  deemed 
to  be  intruders,  and,  as  in  the  case  gf  Newburyport,  the 
law-makers  did  not  smile  upon  them. 


264  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

The  majority  having  become,  by  their  own  vote,  Con- 
gregationalists,  as  they  did  not,  like  Peterboro,  ask  the 
Presbytery  to  dismiss  them,  with  them  vox  populi  became 
vox  Dei,  and  they  went  on  swimmingly.  "  The  Irish  meet- 
ing-house," built  in  1743-44,  was  now  "  swept  and  gar- 
nished," in  view  of  their  success,  in  order  to  make  the 
place  more  attractive  for  a  new  minister.  When  a  tax  was 
laid  upon  the  pews,  to  pay  for  the  painting,  Mrs.  Captain 
Alexander  Wilson  (widow),  who  owned  a  pew  in  her  own 
right,  rather  than  see  such  a  perversion  of  the  sacred  trust, 
and  a  teacher  of  "  divers,"  if  not  "  strange,  doctrines,"  stand 
in  the  pulpit,  in  which  for  twenty-nine  years  she  had  seen 
lier  father  stand  as  "  the  messenger  of  God  "  and  as  her 
own  Presbyterian  pastor,  she  resolved  (as  did  thirteen 
otlier  heads  of  families  with  her)  to  forsake  the  place,  and 
to  change,  if  she  could  not  forget,  her  Sabbath  surround- 
ings. As  the  occupants  knew  there  was  force  in  the  trust 
deed,  his  "  pew  and  seat "  was  still  kept  free  for  the  heirs 
.  of  John  Little.  Presbyterianism  had  to  beg  twelve  years 
before  it  was  allowed  to  build  its  first  church  in  School 
street,  on  its  own  land,  and  now,  after  an  existence  of  above 
seventy  years,  it  is  blotted  out  in  Boston. 

On  April  4,  1787,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jeremy  Belknapp  was 
settled  as  their  minister.  On  June  2,  1786,  by  the  Associ- 
ate Reformed  Synod,  the  third  Preshytery  was  called  the 
Presbytery  of  Londonderry. 

We  now  return  to  the  records : 

At  Peterboro,  September  27,  1786,  the  members  were 
D.  Annan,  Jno.  Houston,  S.  Taggart  and  Wm.  Morrison, 
ministers,  with  their  elders.  From  them  Ryegate  and 
Barnet  (Vt.)  request  supplies.  To  these  places  "  the  Rev. 
Jno.  Houston  was  appointed,  and  instructed  to  ordain 
ekk'rs  for  them."  "  Elder  Thos.  McGee,  of  Coleraine,  pre- 
sented a  legal  vote  of  the  town  requesting^  Mr.  Taggart  to 
continue  among  them."  On  May  30,  1787,  at  London- 
derry, but  little  business  was  done,  and  the  Rev.  James 
Proudfit  was  to  "  be  earnestly  requested  to  attend  their 
next  meeting,"  which  was  held  at  Coleraine  on  October  1, 
1787,  and  which  (with  Mr.  Robert  McMurray,  his  elder) 
he  did. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Hubbard,  on  request,  sat  with  them  as  a 
correspondent.     Pelham  requested  some  assistance  and 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  265 

supply.  Order  was  taken  for  the  ordination  of  elders  at 
Middlefield  and  Chester ;  "  they  are  to  find  a  sound 
preacher,  if  they  can,  and  when  obtained,  they  and  he  are 
to  be  admitted  under  the  care  of  Presbytery."  Difficulties 
had  arisen  in  Coleraine,  which  were  now  considered — and 
^^ Resolved,  That,  unless  they  have  union  and  harmony,  and 
pay  up  their  arrears  to  Mr.  Taggart,  his  connection  with 
them  is  to  be  dissolved  by  next  meeting."  The  then  state 
of  their  case,  a  member  of  the  session  and  one  from  the 
congregation  are  to  report  at  next  meeting.  Although  it 
is  said  that  "  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,"  theo- 
logical seminaries  had  not  yet  been  opened  in  America. 
Their  fields  for  harvest  were  now  more  numerous  than 
their  laborers.  Their  intercourse  with  Ireland  was  dimin- 
ished, and  to  supply  their  vacancies  their  native  preachers 
were  not  sufficient.  "  Bedford  is  granted  some  supply — and 
Mr.  Proudfit  is  to  apply  earnestly  to  Mr.  Young,  now  at 
Cambridge,  N.  Y.,  to  come  and  supply  Pelham  some  Sab- 
baths, or,  upon  failure  with  him,  to  apply  to  any  other 
orthodox  clergyman,  wherever  Providence  may  open  a 
door."  Be  it  remembered,  the  term  orthodox,  in  1787,  did 
not  by  any  means  convey  the  idea  in  New  England  of  a 
single  remove  from  Unitarianism,  as  it  does  now,  but  one 
who  believed  in  the  existence  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  a 
Calvinist,  a  Presbyterian,  or  one  willing  to  come  to  Pres- 
byterianism  and  do  work  according  to  the  Westminster 
standards. 

We  now  for  a  season  turn  from  the  ecclesiastical  to  the 
political  field.  From  year  to  year,  after  the  conclusion  of 
peace,  did  the  representatives  of  the  colonies  labor  to  de- 
tail constitutional  principles,  such  as  would  mutually 
interest  and  combine  all  in  one  harmonious  union. 

The  matter  was  both  important  and  difficult;  but  at 
last  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  drawn,  and, 
when  completed,  not  only  was  it  modelled  almost  entirely 
after  the  form  of  Presbyterian  church  government,  but  a 
vital  principle  of  this  order  of  ecclesiastical  polity  was  fol- 
lowed, viz.,  that,  before  the  constitution  is  finally  adopted 
and  becomes  binding,  it  must  be  overtured.  Having  bor- 
rowed the  model,  the  best  ever  drawn  in  Christendom,  it 
was  both  natural  and  ntx^essary  to  overture  the  constitu- 
tion; in  doing  which  it  was  agreed,  that  if  nine  out  of  the 


266  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

thirteen  colonies  would  ratify  it,  it  should  be  declared  to 
be  fully  adopted  and  to  be  binding  on  them  all.  Mind  in 
Massachusetts,  cast  in  their  Congregational  mould  of  iso- 
lated groups,  or  of  "  an  Athenian  democracy,"  is  not  partial 
to  Federal  representation,  and  when  this  became  neces- 
sary, the  great  number  of  355  delegates  were  chosen  to 
form  the  convention,  which  was  called  to  ratify  or  reject 
the  prepared  constitution.  These  assembled  in  Boston, 
where  the  famous  old  ciiurch  of  Dr.  Colman,  on  Brattle 
street,  had  been  marked  by  a  cannon  ball,  and  after  seven- 
teen days  of  earnest  and  even  stormy  debate,  it  was  found 
that  the  echo  was  so  troublesome  that  some  place  of  more 
correct  acoustics  must  be  obtained,  and  obtained  it  was  in 
"  Johnny  Moorehead's  meeting-house  "  in  Long  lane. 

This  structure  was  of  wood,  in  form  like  not  a  few  of 
such  edifices  at  the  time,  such  as  the  old  South,  with  the 
pulpit  high  upon  the  back  wall,  which  stood  on  the  lane. 
The  principal  door  Avas  through  the  base  of  the  steeple  and 
belfry  at  the  corner  of  the  lane  and  Bury  street.  To  this 
structure  the  convention  adjourned,  and  after  debating  the 
matter  there  for  seven  days,  on  February  0th,  1788,  the 
Federal  Constitution  was  adopted  by  the  small  majority 
of  nineteen  votes.  Ten  wrong  votes  more  would  have  left 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  n(^twithstanding  all  the 
patriotism  of  her  Adamses  and  her  Hancock,  "  out  in  the 
cold."  There  was  providentially  an  appropriateness  in 
the  place,  the  only  spot  in  the  colony  devoted  by  a  deed 
declaring  a  use  and  enjoyment  of  it  by  Presbyterians  for- 
ever, "  to  and  for  the  only  proper  use,  benefit  and  behoof 
of  the  said  congregation  (according  to  the  tenures  and 
after  the  same  manner  as  the  Church  of  Scotland  hold  and 
enjoy  the  lands  whereon  the  meeting-houses  are  erected) 
forever,  and  for  no  other  use,  intent  or  purpose  whatso- 
ever, with  warranty." 

Although  perverted  by  schism,  it  was  still  dejure  under 
the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  and  Synod  of  New 
York.  Such  was  the  spot  on  which  Massachusetts  passed 
from  the  leading  strings  of  colonial  rule  to  the  womanhood 
of  "the  old  Bay  State." 

When  the  fact  was  announced  by  Sheriff  Henderson  at 
the  State  House,  amidst  triumph  and  joy.  Long  Lane,  the 
soil  and  "  the  Irish  meeting-house  "  were  not  then,  as  they 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  267 

are  now,  forgotten — they  were  called  Federal  street  and 
Federal  Street  Church. 

As  the  building  in  which  and  the  soil  on  which,  in 
Philadelphia,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
adopted,  are  matters  of  patriotic  delight,  bordering  on 
veneration  to  every  true  American,  and  are  preserved  in- 
violate from  century  to  century ;  so,  in  like  manner  the 
intense  vitality  of  national  life  is  shewn  by  the  citizens  of 
each  State,  to  the  buildings  and  places  of  concourse  where 
the  inspiration  of  State  existence,  as  a  part  of  prospec- 
tively the  greatest  nation  on  the  earth,  was  begun.  After 
Faneuil  Hall,  which  was  also  a  Presbyterian  foundation, 
the  next  place  to  it  in  importance,  politically  and  civilly, 
in  Boston,  was  the  "Old  South  Church,"  where  "the 
town's  people  "  were  by  patriots  aroused  to  the  demands 
of  duty.  To  preserve  its  identity  a  century  afterwards, 
beside  ten  thousand  dollars  granted  by  the  Legislature, 
oratory  has  been  spread  out  in  lectures,  dances  on  "  the 
light  fantastic  toe,"  and  exhibitions  of  colonial  relics, 
enough  to  decorate  a  pilgrimage  to  an  holy  ground,  all 
crying,  give,  give  money  (and  thousands  are  yet  wanting), 
"  to  save  the  Old  South  Conoregational  meeting-house,"  or 
it  will  be  desecrated  b}^  traffic. 

On  this  national  feeling,  honorable  to  every  true  citizen, 
"Federal  Street  Church  "  must  be  perpetually  pointed  out 
with  pride  by  fathers  to  their  children  from  generation  to 
generation,  and  the  care  taken  to  preserve  it  distinctly  in 
location,  and  so  far  as  practicable,  intact  in  structure  and 
use  will  shew  the  vitality  and  force  of  national  patriotism 
and  zeal  in  the  breasts  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
Old  Bay  State,  and  especially  of  those  resident  in  "  the 
town  of  Boston."  "  There  is  Concord,  there  stands  Bunker 
Hill  "  ( Webster),  and  there  is,  stands,  or  there  was,  or 
there  stood  Federal  Street  Church !  That  this  national 
name  should  continue  for  all  time,  would  be  a  matter  of 
simple  honesty,  as  it  was  an  honor  to  the  Commonwealth, 
but  then  it  was  born  out  of  wedlock,  both  church  and 
State  denied  to  it  parentage,  and  it  contained  "  a  pew  and 
seat"  for  the  heirs  of  John  Little,  a  Presbyterian,  forever, 
which  then  and  now  represented  in  part  the  cestuis  que 
trust  of  the  whole  estate.  It  could  not  be  voted  out  of  the 
position  in  which  he  had  placed  it,  so  long  as  equity  should 


268  HISTORY   OF   PRESI^YTERIANISM 

remain  a  virtue.  It  is  also  possible  that  tlie  seat  of  Mrs. 
Wilson  had  not  yet  been  "  sold  to  pay  for  the  painting  of 
the  church,"  as  the  criminal  induction  of  Dr.  Belknap  had 
taken  place  less  than  a  year  before. 

We  leave  these  pews  and  seats  in  this  national  house  to 
trace  otlier  waning  vestiges  of  this  polity  in  our  field. 

In  the  minutes  at  Peterboro,  April  oOth,  1788,  it  is  re- 
corded that  "  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  of  New 
England  met."  ^^  Sederunt,  Annan,  Houston,  Taggart  and 
Morrison,  ministers,  with  their  elders." 

An  agent  from  the  town  of  Antrim,  N.  H.,  asked  Presby- 
tery for  the  organization  of  a  church.  This,  by  appoint- 
ment, the  Rev.  William  Morrison  effected  on  August  3d. 
It  consisted  of  seventy- two  members  under  three  ruling 
elders,  but  did  not  obtain  a  pastor  for  twelve  years. 

"Philip  Riley  began  this  settlement  in  1744.  There 
was  no  religious  meeting,  probably  not  even  a  prayer- 
meeting  in  the  town  for  thirty  years.  The  first  sermon 
was  preached  to  them  in  September,  1775,  by  the  Rev. 
William  Davidson,  of  Derry,  and  after  that  they  'were 
not  negligent  in  religious  things.'  They  taught  their  chil- 
dren at  home.  The  Bible  and  the  catechism  were  the 
chief  literature  in  every  house.  They  kept  the  Sabbath 
with  great  reverence.  Having  no  trash  to  read  or  for  their 
children  to  read,  they  studied  over  and  over  the  Holy 
Book,  and  came  to  hold  its  doctrines  rigidly  and  intelli- 
gently." (His.  Ser.,  p.  19.)  From  their  organization  they 
had  no  pastor  until  the  Rev.  Walter  Little  was  settled  over 
them,  on  September  3d,  1800,  and  he  resigned  September 
4th,  1804. 

A  Mr.  Merrill,  previously  noticed,  had  appeared  in  Rye- 
gate  and  Barnet,  and  they  ask  Presbytery,  whether  they 
can  safely  employ  him  or  not?  They  were  answered: 
that  "  this  Presbytery  are  totally  opposed  to  him  as  being, 
in  their  opinion,  unworthy  of  the  ministerial  character  and 
office,  and  that  this  Presbytery  cannot  but  totally  disap- 
prove of  said  people  continuing  to  employ  him  to  preach 
among  them." 

"A  petition  from  six  members  of  the  church  in  Peter- 
boro, respecting  the  propriet}^  of  introducing  a  new  ver- 
sion of  the  Psalms,  was  presented,  and  as  the  minister  and 
session  had  already  written  to  the  Synod  on  the  affair,  all 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  269 

proceedings  of  Presbytery  upon  it  were  waived  for  the 
present."  They  were  advised  to  "  wait  the  decision  of 
Synod,  and  admonished  not  to  break  the  peace  of  the 
church,  and  if  they  can  no  other  way  answer  a  good  con- 
science they  do  it  under  covert  of  a  protest  to  be  recorded 
on  the  session  book." 

The  "  incurable  dissatisfaction  "  was  thus  buried  "  de- 
cently and  in  order."  On  their  request,  a  limited  supply 
of  preaching  was  given  to  the  town  of  Hancock.  "  Mr. 
Taggart  was  still  to  labor  in  Coleraine,  and  the  people  are 
recommended  to  do  their  duty  towards  him." 

The  "  Rev.  John  Houston  was  appointed  to  supply 
Middlefield  and  Chester,  and  to  certify  to  them  when  there, 
if  he  judge  proper,  that  they  are  an  organized  Presbyterian 
church."     Bedford  to  be  supplied  one  Sabbath, 

Peterboro,  May  1st,  1788.  "  Voted,  that  Mr.  Morrison 
write  to  the  Synod  and  give  reasons  why  the  attendance 
of  this  Presbytery  has  been  so  much  omitted,  and  also  re- 
questing the  appointment  of  some  candidates  to  New 
England." 

Londonderry,  October  1st,  1788.  The  Rev.  Aaron 
Hutchinson  sat  as  a  correspondent.  "  Rev.  D.  Annan  was 
appointed  to  preach  in  Chester,  Mass.,  to  make  farther  in- 
quiries into  their  circumstances,  to  see  if  the  certificate, 
which  they  ask  to  the  civil  authorities,  signifying  that  they 
are  a  properly  organized  congregation,  can  be  granted." 
Beside  minor  items,  they  record,  "This  Presbytery  taking 
into  serious  consideration  the  broken  state  of  the  Presby- 
terian interest  in  New  England,  and  the  importance  ofj 
doing  something  to  unite  the  various  bodies  of  Presbyte- 
rians. Voted,  That  letters  be  written — one  to  the  Presby- 
tery of  Grafton  and  another  to  the  Presbytery  at  the  East- 
ward, relating  to  the  expediency  of  some  proposals  of  a 
coalescence  of  the  several  Presbyteries." 

We  have  seen  a  similar  feeling  expressed  by  the  Salem 
Presbytery  and  the  one  at  the  Eastward — "  Union  is 
strength,"  and  tliey  now  mutually  felt  the  need  of  it,  as 
the}^  were  gradually  being  overborne  by  the  semiscriptural 
usages  of  the  State  religion  on  its  native  soil. 

At  Coleraine,  May  6,  1789,  in  answer  to  the  one  sent,  on 
the  above  recorded  vote,  "a  letter  was  read  from  the  clerk 
of  Grafton  Presbytery,"  responding  in  words.  An  acknowl- 


270  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

edgment  and  reply  was  now  ordered  to  be  written  by  Mr. 
Taggart.  Petitions  were  received  from  Barnet  and  Groton, 
the  last  accompanied  with  a  certificate  of  their  incorpora- 
tion, signed  by  the  town  clerk.  For  each  jilace  some,  sup- 
l)ly  by  settled  pastors  was  granted. 

"This  Presbytery  finding  it  impossiV)le  for  any  of  their 
members  to  attend  the  next  meeting  of  Synod,  and  at  the 
same  time  conscious  of  the  importance  of  considering 
with  attention  the  overture  lately  published  for  illustra- 
tion of  the  doctrine  contained  in  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  do  think  it  their  duty  to  intimate  their 
judicial  approbation  of  the  same,  so  far  as  it  is  confined  to 
and  takes  up  and  executes  the  illustration  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  said  Confession,  and  do  appoint  the  moderator  of 
this  Presbytery  to  write  to  the  Synod  on  the  subject." 

"  Peterboro,  October  7,  1789 — the  Associate  Reformed 
Presbytery  of  New  England  met.  The  Rev.  Aaron  Hutch- 
inson, a  member  of  Grafton  Presbytery,  being  present,  was 
invited  to  sit  with  Presbytery.  Mr.  Annan  read  a  copy  of 
the  letter  which  he  was  appointed  to  write  to  Grafton 
Presbytery,  and  also  their  answer."  Mutual  good  feeling 
appears  to  have  been  growing  between  them.  The  resig- 
nation of  his  office,  by  Elder  Samuel  Moore,  was  accepted, 
showing  that  this  was  not  done  merely  to  and  by  his  ses- 
sion, but  to  and  by  the  superior  court,  in  which,  when  ap- 
pointed, he  occupied  an  equal  seat  with  the  others.  If  this 
were  required  universally,  it  would  constrain  those  who 
are  worthy  to  "  magnify  their  office."  "  'Tis  a  consumma- 
tion devoutly  to  be  wished." 

"  Londonderry,  May  26,  1790.  The  Associate  Reformed 
Presbytery  of  New  England  met,  sederunt,  Messrs.  Annan, 
Morrison  and  Houston,  ministers,  with  elders  Davidson 
and  Griffin.  The  Rev.  Messrs.  Hutchinson  and  Williams 
sit  as  correspondents. 

"A  memorial  addressed  to  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia 
by  the  Presbytery  at  the  Eastward,  respecting  Mr.  John 
Murray,  was  laid  before  the  Presbytery  by  the  Rev.  Simon 
Williams,  of  Windham,  entreating  the  concurrence  of  this 
body  with  the  purport  of  the  same  in  an  address  to  the 
Philadelphia  Presbytery."  "  Voted,  That  Messrs.  Annan 
and  Morrison  draw  up  a  representation  concurring  with 
the  memorial,  and  that  they  report  the  same." 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  271 

The  Presbyterian  Society  of  Pembroke,  N.  H.,  petitioned 
for  admission,  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Colby,  their  pastor,  and 
a  plan  of  union  between  the  Congregational  and  Presby- 
terian societies  of  said  town  was  read.  Mr.  Colby  was 
admitted  and  the  congregation  were  received.  Mr.  Hutch- 
inson appears  to  have  now  left  tlie  Grafton  Presbytery,  as 
he  was  appointed  with  Mr.  Morrison  to  Groton  for  one 
Sabbath  each. 

Coleraine,  September  30,  1790.  The  Associate  Reformed 
Presbytery  met.  "  Read  a  copy  of  the  representation  made 
to  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  and  also  the  minutes  of 
last  meeting." 

"  Peterboro,  September  27,  1791,  the  Associate  Reformed 
Presbytery  of  New  England  met.  Sederunt^  Annan,  Mor- 
rison and  Taggart,  with  John  Houston,  correspondent,  and 
three  elders.  The  Rev.  Messrs.  Trisk  and  Ainsworth  sit  as 
correspondents."  A  petition  from  Nottingham  West  for 
supply  was  granted,  while  a  request  of  like  nature  was  not, 
for  they  say,  "  It  was  uncertain  in  what  State  or  township 
Col.  RoL^ers  resided — therefore  the  answer  to  his  petition 
was  void."  As  Vermont  was  this  year  admitted  into  the 
Union,  that  territory  was  no  longer  known  as  "the  New 
Hampsliire  Grants,"  and  this  increase  of  States  might  have 
increased  the  colonel's  difficulty,  until  he  had  forgotten  to 
state  where  the  preaching  was  requested. 

By  presenting  items  from  their  recorded  minutes  fre- 
quently, the  reader  can  draw  his  own  deductions ;  and 
from  those  presented  it  will  be  readily  seen  that,  to  some 
extent,  "a  chan^  was  coming  over  the  spirit  of  their" 
attachment  to  Presbyterianism.  From  1774  the  matter 
of  praise  among  (at  least)  one  of  the  other  Presbyteries 
had  become  increasingly  assimilated  to  that  used  by  the 
State  churches,  since  the  Bay  State  version  was  abandoned, 
and  the  leaven  of  change  was  working  steadily.  Again, 
they  were  so  remote  from  those  more  central  points,  where 
co-presbyters  from  the  Carolinas  and  from  beyond  the 
Allegheiiies  could  most  conveniently  meet,  that  this,  when 
taken  into  account  with  the  toil  of  travelling  and  the  un- 
avoidable expense,  constrained  them  to  neglect  almost 
wholly  the  meetings  of  Synod. 

"As  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  so  doth  a  man  his  friend  by 
hearty  counsel,"  and  to  say  nothing  of  bearing  annually  a 


272  III.^TOllY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

share  of  the  burdens  laid  on  church  courts  in  "taking  care 
of  the  house  of  God,"  the  want  of  the  "  provocation  to  love 
and  to  good  works  "  usually  enjoyed,  beside  the  neglect 
of  the  "  least  of  reason  and  the  flow  of  soul,"  all  such  omis- 
sions tended  to  a  rotation,  isolating  and  contracting  to  the 
overseers  of  God's  heritage.  Hence,  by  non-attendance 
they  were  discouraging  others  and  not  benefiting  them- 
selves. Consequently,  they  were  plied  with  letters  of  in- 
quiry for  their  reasons  of  absence.  On  September  28, 
1791,  Mr.  Samuel  Toombs,  from  New  York  Presbytery,  was, 
on  his  own  request,  taken  under  care.  Mr.  Oliver  delivered 
parts  of  his  ''  trials."  A  verbal  request  for  supply  from 
Derry  was  presented,  and  a  similar  one  from  Antrim.  Mr. 
Toombs  was  appointed  to  supply  in  the  East  Parish  four 
Sabbaths,  in  Chester  one,  and  in  Antrim  four. 

"A  commissioner  from  Bedford  craved  advice  in  their 
critical  situation,  and  also  supply.  Mr.  Oliver  was  licensed, 
which  was,  on  October  24th,  duly  announced  to  Synod. 
Mr.  D.  Annan  presented  the  demission  of  his  charge — read 
and  laid  on  the  table.  This  was  transmitted  to  the  Synod 
for  counsel,  and  the  congregation  of  Peterboro  notified  to 
adduce  their  reasons,  at  next  meeting,  why  it  should  not 
be  sustained.  Voted — that  Mr.  Annan  represent  this  Pres- 
bytery in  Synod  at  their  next  meeting,"  which  he  did  at 
Philadelphia  on  October  19th.  He  was  also  charged  "  to 
make  inquiry  respecting  the  aff'airs  of  the  Rev.  John  Mur- 
ray at  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia."  At  his  request, 
the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry  was,  on  said  day  (October 
19,  1791),  by  Synod,  called  the  Associate  Reformed  Pres- 
bytery of  New  England. 

While  the  Presbyter}^  were  yielding  not  only  to  the 
clamor  of  the  young  and  unthinking  in  relation  to  liymn- 
ology,  but  also  to  town  meetings,  which  voted  out  the  God- 
given  psalms  and  voted  in  the  "  imitations,"  or  other 
human  productions,  as  the  matter  of  divine  praise  in  the 
parish  for  the  ensuing  year,  as  they  voted  in  the  pound- 
keepers,  dog-killers  and  the  constables ;  they  found  also 
that  just  as  the  appointed  "  pure  ofiering  "  of  praise  was 
supplanted  in  the  churches  and  silenced  in  the  families, 
that  "  divers  and  strange  doctrines  "  were  propagated. 

As  the  doctrine  of  imputation  alone  can  display  the  wil- 
ful ruin  of  a  race  and  the  satisfaction  of  divine  justice  for 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  273 

the  sins  of  that  "  multitude  which  no  man  can  number," 
so  it  lies  at  the  foundation  of  "  redemption  through  the 
blood  of  Christ;  "and  as  for  nearly  a  generation  human 
poetry  had  been  increasingly  sung  in  the  State  churches, 
so  in  proportion  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  "  had  become 
of  less  importance;  consequently,  those  whose  "hearts 
trembled  for  the  ark  of  God  "  at  times  "  lifted  up  their 
voices  like  a  trumpet."  Hence,  "Voted — that  the  thanks 
of  this  Presbytery  be  presented  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hunting- 
ton, of  Connecticut,  for  his  late  able  and  judicious  defence 
of  the  all-important  doctrine  of  imputation." 

At  Peterboro,  May  30th,  1792,  sederunt.  Rev.  Messrs. 
Annan,  Taggart,  and"^  Morrison,  with  Rev.  John  Houston, 
correspondent,  and  four  elders.     Mr.  Toombs,  clerk. 

Requests  for  supplies,  beside  from  other  places,  were 
made  by  Mr.  Parks  from  Groton,  Mr.  John  Duncan  from 
Antrim^  Captain  Thompson  from  Pelham,  and  Mr.  Mor- 
rison from  New  Rowley. 

Rev.  Messrs.  Miles  and  Page  sat.as  correspondents. 

A  petition  from  the  A.  R.  Presbytery  of  New  York  was 
read,  asking  the  labors  of  Mr.  Oliver  for  some  time  among 
their  vacancies. 

Mr.  Annan's  troubles  were  now  considered,  and  commis- 
sioners from  the  town  of  Peterboro  were  heard.  He  asked 
for  a  dismission,  which  was  granted,  and  the  pastoral  rela- 
tion was  dissolved.     His  further  history  hereafter. 

We  have  already  seen  the  Presbytery  at  the  Eastward, 
on  June  13th,  1792,  at  Seabrook,  appointing  as  delegates  to 
a  Synodical  convention,  to  be  held  at  Dartmouth  College, 
on  August  2od,  1792,  for  the  purpose  of  uniting  the  several 
Presbyteries  into  a  Synod,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Moore,  Wil- 
liams, and  Murray,  and  it  was,  on  May  31st,  1792, "  voted, 
that  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Annan  and  Morrison  attend  the  next 
meeting  of  the  delegates  from  the  respective  Presbyteries 
at  Dartmouth  College."  It  is  probable  that  the  Presbytery 
of  Grafton  made  similar  appointments,  and  we  have  (in  the 
handwriting  of  Mr.  Annan)  "  preliminary  articles  of  union, 
to  be  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  the  respective  Pres- 
byteries, Eastward,  A.  R.  of  N.  E.,and  Grafton,  when  they 
shall  meet  at  Dartmouth  College,  on  the  day  after  commence- 
ment, and  endeavor  to  settle  the  whole  plan  of  coalescence, 
and  shall  appoint  time  ^nd  place  for  next  meeting."  In 
18 


274  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  absence  of  the  minutes  of  the  doings  of  the  said  con- 
vention, we  know  the  fact  that  the  Presbytery  of  Grafton 
did  not  unite,  that  they  did  not  attend  the  adjourned  meet- 
ing of  said  convention  at  Pembroke,  N.  H.,  and  that  after 
the  death  of  the  Rev.  John  Murray  (on  March  13th,  1793), 
the  fragments  of  the  Prcsbyterv  at  the  Eastward  and  the  A. 
R.  Presbytery  of  New  England  eventually  "  coalesced."  In 
the  meantime,  "the  first  Presbytery  of  the  Eastward  "  met 
at  Derry,  on  the  first  Wednesday  in  October,  1793,  and  to 
them  the  following  letter  was  addressed: 

"  Windham,  September  Ath,  1793. 

"  This  session  having  received  a  letter  from  the  Presby- 
tery of  Londonderry,  of  date  of  May  29th,  1793,  requesting 
them  to  take  into  serious  consideration  the  utility  and  pro- 
priety of  uniting  in  judicial  capacity  with  their  Presbytery, 
taking  no  further  notice  of  the  Grafton  Presbytery,  as  they 
have  voluntarily  declined  connection  with  us  b3^not  attending 
the  convention  at  Pembroke: 

"  This  session  do  cordially  concur  with  the  proposal, 
and  solemnly  recommend  it  to  you  (as  a  Presbytery)  to  do 
the  same.  We  pray  that  this  union  may  come  to  a  happy 
issue,  that  harmony  may  be  promoted,  that  the  unity  of 
the  Spirit  may  be  preserved  in  the  bond  of  peace. 

"  Simon  Williams,  Mod'r." 

In  the  absence  of  its  minutes,  this  Presbytery  of  Graf- 
ton appears  to  have  been  a  kind  of  amateur  one,  probably 
galvanized  into  existence  by  the  Wheelocks  and  their  in- 
fluence, as  a  good  or,  perhaps,  a  little  better  expedient 
than  the  *'  loose,  disjointed  way "  of  Congregationalism. 
It,  like  the  seed  sown  on  the  rock,  endured  for  a  time,  but 
was  afterwards  offended  when  called  on  to  sustain  Presby- 
terianism  as  the  Scriptural-ism  in  government.  Its  con- 
gregations returned  to  bask  under  the  fostering  care  of  the 
State,  each  one  to  act  its  own  part  without  Presbyterial 
parity  or  Synodical  unity.  This  was  well,  for  the  expe- 
dient of  a  merely  nominal  Presbyterianism  yields  no 
advantage  in  doctrine,  worship,  or  discipline  over  'a  thor- 
oughly associated  Congregationalism ;  it  is  simply  calling 
Jesus  "  Master  and  Lord,"  without  doing  the  things  which 
he  says.  # 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  275 

The  momentum  given  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Murray  to  his 
Presbytery  at  Eastward  did  not  whoU}^  cease  at  his  death, 
and  we  find  the  town  of  New  Market,  in  July,  1793,  taking 
the  usual  steps  prescribed  by  civil  law  and  then  by  that 
Presbytery  for  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Jonathan  Brown  as 
colleague  with  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Ewer.     Also : 

"  Londonderry,  September  2d,  1793. 

"  We,  the  feeble  remains  of  the  late  Rev.  AVm.  David- 
son's session,  Avhich  was  formerly  under  the  Presbytery  at 
the  Eastward — but  it  hath  pleased  the  Lord  of  the  harvest 
to  call  home  the  greater  part  of  the  members  of  that  Pres- 
bytery, so  that  we  can  have  no  more  help  from  them  in 
that  way — and  now,  in  the  good  providence  of  God,  having 
a  desirable  opportunity  of  joining  with  the  Londonderry 
Presbytery,  whereof  the  Rev.  \Vm.  Morrison  and  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Taggart  are  members,  do  cheerfully  embrace  it,  by 
all  our  session  that  were  present,  hoi)ing  that  it  may  be  for 
the  honor  of  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  and  for  the 
comfort  and  enlargement  of  it. 

"  Signed  by  order  of  six  elders  in  session,  by 

"John  Moor,  Clerk." 

They  thus  were  accejDted  and  identified  with  the  A.  R, 
Presbytery  of  New  England  (probably)  at  Pelham,  on  the 
11th  of  that  month. 

At  a  meeting  of  this  Presbytery  -pro  re  nata,  on  Jul}^  22d, 
1793,  a  call  was  accepted  by  Mr.  Oliver,  and  on  "  Septem- 
ber 11th,  after  the  prescribed  trials  had  been  sustained,  he 
was  ordained  and  installed  over  the  west  (which  was  not, 
it  would  seem,  the  first)  parish  of  Pelham."  On  asking 
his  services,  this  congregation  also  "  requested  some  direc- 
tion respecting  psalmody  and  singing."  They  had  doubt- 
less for  years  used  the  "  139  Imitations,"  and  as  this  Pres- 
bytery had  not  as  yet  "  so  learned  Christ,"  they  properly 
ask  for  instructions,  and  to  them  all  indulgence  connected 
with  the  existence  of  this  form  of  ecclesiastical  polity  was 
shewn.  The  prayer  of  their  petition  w^as  "left  to  the  wis- 
dom of  the  session,  who  may  be  best  acquainted  with  that 
mode  wdiich  is  most  conducive  to  public  usefulness.  But, 
in  particular,  if  the  congregation  sing  without  reading, 
that  they  be  all  advised  to  have  books." 


276  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

At  "  Peterboro,  Octol3er  9th,  1793,  a  call  from  Newbnry- 
port  for  Mr.  Toombs,  presented  through  the  Eastern  Pres- 
bytery, was  received,"  and  when  presented  he  asked  time 
to  consider  it,  which  was  granted. 

The  reasons  for  not  accepting  the  call  from  Antrim, 
which  he  stated,  were  approved.  Supplies  were  granted  to 
Antrim  and  Peterboro.  The  calling  of  the  pro  re  nata 
meeting  was  approved. 

During  the  years  1792,  '3,  and  '4,  no  member  of  the  A.  R. 
Presbytery  of  New  England  had  appeared  in  Synod,  which 
was  a  source  of  grief  to  the  denomination.  Numbers,  ob- 
tained even  by  expediency,  appeared  now  to  be  of  more 
importance  to  them  than  purity  of  worship  and  fulfilled 
vows.  Hence,  they  say,  "  The  expedienc}'  of  forming  a 
union  with  the  Eastern  Presbytery  was  considered  and  ap- 
proved. Voted,  ergo,  agreeably  to  the  proceedings  of  the 
convention  at  Pembroke,  that  the  delegates  be  appointed 
to  form  a  union."  "  Rev.  Wm.  Morrison,  with  elders  Bell 
and  Smith,  are  hereby  empowered  to  meet  in  convention 
with  the  Rev.  Solomon  Moore  and  elders  Campbell  and 
Moore,  of  the  Eastern  Presbytery,  to  form  a  coalescence, 
and  to  dissolve  both  Presbyteries  into  one,  on  the  last 
Friday  of  this  inst.  If  no  union  is  formed,  Presbytery  is 
to  meet  in  Pelham  on  the  last  Tuesday  in  May,  1794 ;  and 
if  an  union  is  formed,  the  new  court  will  appoint  its  own 
time  and  place,  the  clerk  of  said  convention  to  give 
notice  to  the  different  members  that  they  may  govern 
themselves  accordingl}'." 

From  the  "  Minutes  of  the  Convention,  which  met  at 
Londonderry,  October  25th,  1793,  for  finisliing  the  union," 
we  learn  that  the  meeting  was  held  according  to  the  ap- 
pointments of  both  Presbyteries ;  that  there  were  "  present, 
Revs.  Sol.  Moore,  Wm.  Morrison,  and  Jno.  Houston,  min- 
isters, Esqr.  John  Bell,  Captain  John  Moore,  and  Samuel 
Cam])bell  as  elders." 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  Moore  preached  from  John  xiii.  34,  35,  a 
sermon  very  suitable  to  the  occasion."  He  presided  as 
chairman. 

"  This  convention,  being  fully  invested  with  power,  pro- 
ceeded to  form  the  union. 

"After  pra3^er  and  deliberation,  voted  : 

"1st.  To  adopt  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Gate- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  277 

chisms,  directory  for  worship  and  form  of  government,  as 
the  standards  of  this  Presbytery,  in  subordination  to  the 
word  of  God. 

"  2d.  That  the  Presbytery  shall  be  called  the  Presbytery 
of  Londonderry. 

"  3d.  That  Derry  east  and  west  parishes  alternately  be 
the  places  for  stated  meetings,  unless  otherwise  specially 
requested  by  some  other  town  or  parish,  for  special  busi- 
ness there. 

"4th.  That  the  Presbytery  meet  at  the  east  meeting- 
house on  the  last  Wednesday  of  May,  1794. 

"5th.  That  upon  these  principles  the  union  be  and 
hereby  is  closed." 

The  Rev.  W.  Morrison,  on  request,  gave  a  parting  ad- 
dress, and  is  to  open  the  first  meeting  with  a  sermon. 

Since  the  centennial  year  (1876),  the  traveller  westward 
can  traverse  the  Atlantic  watershed  by  some  four  or  more 
partly  parallel  railroads  through  Iowa,  and  whether  he 
enter  the  eye  of  the  needle  at  Omaha  or  make  a  detour  of 
a  few  hundred  miles  by  Denver,  still,  when  he  reaches 
Cheyenne,  all  travel  is  concentrated  on  one  track  over  the 
Rocky,  the  Wahsatch,  and  Nevada  Mountains.  Similar 
has  been  and  is,  at  the  close  of  this  quarter  of  a  century, 
in  1793,  our  Presbyterianism  in  New  P^ngland.  We  have 
had  four — or,  including  the  Synod  and  its  three,  in  all 
seven — Presbyteries  in  sixty-five  years  in  the  land  of  the 
Puritans.  The  mountains,  the  shore  of  Salt  Lake,  and  the 
desert  must  be  travelled  by  rail  on  only  one  track;  and 
now  we  have,  in  this  region,  to  end  the  Presbyterianism 
of  New  England  with  only  one  Presbytery  at  the  close  of 
the  eighteenth  century !  To  it  as  a  plant  the  soil  was 
most  ungenial,  the  climate  unpropitious,  and  the  malaria 
noxious.  Under  the  shadow  of  a  native  species  of  church 
polity  supported  by  the  civil  power,  it  existed  only  in  op- 
position to  great  disadvantages,  and  these  were  doubled 
by  the  "tastes  "  of  men  who  did  not  "receive,  observe,  nor 
keep  pure  and  entire  all  such  religious  worship  and  ordi- 
nances as  God  had  appointed  in  his  word.'' 

We  have  thus  seen  the  introduction  iinil  "vowth  of  Pres- 
byterianism in  New  England.  During  tlie  lirst  generation, 
while  those  who  brought  it  to  the  region  survived,  it  was 
maintained  on  divine  authority,  as  a  government  adminis- 


278  HISTORY   OF   PRESS YTERIANISM 

tered  by  men  who  were  "  gathered  together  in  the  name 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  "  with  the  power  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,"  to  "  take  care  of  the  house  of  God ; "  fami- 
lies were  nurseries  for  the  church,  in  which  the  "loving 
kindness  of  God  was  shewn  forth  in  the  morning,  and 
his  faithfulness  declared  ever}^  night ;  "  the  Sabbath  was  a 
day  not  only  of  rest,  but  of  joy  and,  in  the  words  of  a 
modern  errorist,  wearing  the  Presbyterian  name  (Swing), 
their  "  Calvinism  was  a  preachable  and  a  preached  doc- 
trine." We  are  not,  however,  to  suppose  that  all,  who 
came  from  Europe  as  ministers,  "  magnified  their  office." 
Some  of  them  ended  their  career  as  desperate  villains, 
especially  the  first  two  incumbents  of  Peterboro,  N.  H. 
To  prove  this  awful  assertion,  in  relation  to  Annan,  I 
quote  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Morrison's  century  address. 

"  He  was  deposed  from  the  ministry  in  1800,  and  died 
in  Ireland  in  1802.  He  possessed  res])ectable  talents,  and 
might  easily  have  retained  the  confidence  of  his  people. 
But  his  intemperate  habits,  his  licentious  and  corrupt  con- 
versation, and  his  haughty,  over-bearing  manner  at  length 
deprived  him  of  their  respect  and  regard.  So  brutal  was 
his  treatment  of  his  wife,  who  was  an  estimable  woman, 
that  she  was  compelled  to  pass  the  whole  night  with  her 
children  in  the  woods;  she  finally  obtained  a  bill  of 
divorce  on  the  ground  of  extreme  cruelty." 

"They,  Morrison  and  Annan,  were  the  only  settled  pas- 
tors in  the  place  for  fifty  years.  During  this  dark  period 
religion  was  kept  alive  by  religious  exercises  in  the  family, 
rather  than  by  public  ministrations." 

"  Our  people  were  always  readers,  and  the  Bible  was 
almost  their  only  book.  Here  they  went  for  counsel  and 
support;  it  was  to  them  prophet  and  priest.  Family 
prayer  "  (that  is,  as  we  have  seen  at  West  Running-brook 
in  Derry,  worship  by  prayer,  reading  and  singing  psalms) 
"  was  faithfully  observed.  Morning  and  evening  the  Scrip- 
tures were  read,  and  if  the  flame  of  devotion  burned  dim 
in  the  house  of  public  worship,  it  was  not  permitted  to  go 
out  upon  the  family  altar."  A  noble  testimony.  While, 
"  from  the  earliest  time,  that  church  was  Calvinistic  and 
Presbyterian  "  till  1792,  "  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that 
these  two  ministers  were  borne  with  by  the  people."  "  It 
is  accounted  for  in  part "  by  Mr.  M — ,  "  because  of  the 


IN   NEW    ENGLAND.  279 

great  veneration  attached  to  the  profession."  "  Ministers," 
said  one  at  the  commencement  of  the  difficulties  with  Mr. 
Morrison,  "  are  edged  tools  and  we  maun  aye  be  carefu' 
how  we  handle  them."  "  Keep  yoursel'  to  yoursel',"  said 
an  elder  of  the  church  with  great  solemnity  to  his  son, 
who  was  beginning  to  intimate  that  Mr.  Annan  was  not 
what  he  should  be.  Again,  those  ministers,  though  wrong 
in  practice,  were  supposed  to  be  "  sound  in  the  faith,  and 
an  error  in  belief  was  esteemed  to  be  far  more  dangerous 
than  one  in  heart  or  life." 

Thus,  the  original  Londonderry,  or  "  Irish  "  Presbytery, 
had  an  existence  of  probably  thirty-five  or  thirty-seven 
years ;  the  Boston  Presbytery  a  career  of  forty-six  years ; 
the  Presbytery  at  the  Eastward  of  twenty-one  years ;  the 
Grafton  Presbytery  an  existence  of  probably  fifteen  or 
more  years,  and  the  other,  under  the  names  of  the  Asso- 
ciate Reformed  Presbytery  of  Londonderry,  the  Associate 
Reformed  Presbytery  of-  New  England  and  again  of  Lon- 
donderry, "  coalesced  "  with  the  scattered  fragments  of  the 
others  and  continued  to  be  a  working  Presbytery  for 
seventy-six  years.  Its  history,  with  those  of  the  Presby- 
teries of  Newburyport,  Connecticut,  Boston,  Vermont  and 
second  Boston,  together  with  the  congregations  of  the  Re- 
formed Presbyterians  in  New  England,  will  (D.  V.)  form 
our  second  volume. 


HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERMISM 


IN 


NEW.  ENGLAND. 


VOL.  II. 
1793.  1881 


(281) 


HISTORY  OF   PRESBYTERIANISM  283 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1793-1818 — Four  parallel  railroad  lines — The  one  no  wider — Frag- 
ments of  Presbyteries — Not  so — An  expedient — Senii-Erastianism — 
Bath  Kol— The  force  of  truth— Starved  out— The  office  of  elder— A 
corresponding  effect — The  third  vital  power — Tripod — Contest — 
"Genevan  jigs" — Control — Truth — The  leaven — The  rear  rank — A 
matter  of  opinion — The  Bay  State  Version — Producing  for  a  genera- 
tion— Assimilation — A  change — The  Godhead — Sapped — The  Old 
South — Repaired — King's  Chapel-r-The  thread  of  Apostolic  succes- 
sion— Discarded — In  1785 — The  protoplast — The  clerk — Their  rea- 
der— By  power — Metamorphosis — Freedom  idolized — Disregard — 
Murray  since  1773 — A  through  ticket — "Arminianism  respectable" — 
Freewill  Baptist — New  gods — Extensively  shorn — Revived — Chev- 
erus — "The  town's  people" — The  golden  age  of  Boston — The  influ- 
ences of  these  combined  ingredients — Weight  and  force  assimilate — 
Overshadowed — Pew  patronage — No  reinforcements — "  The  elect's 
sake  " — Less  a  matter  of  ambition — Like  passions  with  others — Easy 
to  see — Domestic  training — Could  not  be  expected — Fragments — 
Death  of  Rev.  W.  Davidson — Brown — Opposition — His  ordination 
unwise — A  pretext — Prepared  the  way — A  single  life — Abandoning 
relations — Baldwin — Taggart — Dana  installed  in  Newburyport — Dis- 
Jruption — Mr.  Milton  from  Trevecca — "Better  edification" — "Inde- 
pendent Calvinistic  Church" — Form  of  installation — And  behaved 
well — A  charge — Prospect  Street  Church — The  deacon  p!a  'i  the 
Apostle — A  spectacle — "Thin  and  tenuous  film"  of  power — Pi  nary 
— Vowed  to  obey — Submit  yourselves — Claims  ignored — For  six 
years — Concessions — Removal  of  censure — Average  admissions — S. 
Tomb  called  thrice — A  remonstrance — Dissentients — Opposition  to 
Dana  a  misunderstanding — A  peace  measure — Second  Presbyterian 
Church — First  Church  afiectionate — To  escape  oppression — Another 
denomination — Murray  unwilling — Not  customary — Parish  districted 
— Safety  of  the  church — Session  the  safety  of  the  church — Records  of 
Presbyteries — A  convention,  October,  1793 — An  union — Approved, 
Newmarket  and  Antrim — To  have  "Bedford  act  consistently  with 
Christian  character" — Pickles — Action  of  employers  condemned — 
The  action  of  Newburyport  session  confirmed — Supplies — Nearly  the 
whole  mass — Absorbed — "A  felt  want" — Joel  Barlow — His  callings — 
National  Convention  of  France  Atheists — Revised  139  psalms — As  a 
morning  star  unsavory — Dr.  Dwight  employed — Imitations  allowed 
in  1787 — Moral  sentiment  waxing  feeble — Changes — "  Imitations  " 
vamped — General  Assembly,  U.  Sy  1789 — West  Derry  petitions— 


284  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Session  to  act — Varied  matters — Toombs  installed — Amherst  Associa- 
tion— Pidgeon — Eight  ministers  and  fourteen  elders  meet — Abund- 
ance of  business — Advice — Peterboro  call  sustained — Coleraine  to  be 
seasonably  notified — Jordan — Morrison  to  answer  a  letter  from  Synod — 
Presbyteries  to  deal  honorably  with  Congregationalists — Coleraine  to 
agree — Morrison  to  say  so  to  them — Presbytery  attenuated — Byefield 
in  "strife  and  vain  glory" — Taggart  asks  release — Not  granted — 
Windham  asks  preaching — Boddily's  installation  valid — East  Derry 
asks  the  "imitations,"  September  6tii,  1797 — West  Derry  three  years 
in  advance — Synod  grieved — Appliances  in  vain — Ciiaracter  of  the 
causes  imperfectly  comprehended — Only  a  little  different — The  one 
will  root  out  the  other — Answer  to  a  letter  and  one  to  an  address — 
History  repeating  itself — Prentice  forty-five  years  ago — Now  creeping 
into  houses — The  emotional  powers — This  class  increased — Brown 
obeyed — "Straggling  persons"  encouraged  by  Ewer — "Voted" — 
Vacant  churches  warned — "Such  as  I  am" — Maine — Well,  to  "go 
and  do  likewise" — Khode  Island  sects — A  peculiarity  of  Presbyterian 
church  government — A  painful  interest — Washington,  N.  Y.,  Presby- 
tery, May  30th,  1794— Synod,  Rev.  R.  Annan  to  write  for  it  to  Lon- 
donderry Presbytery — He  reported — "  Certain  information  received  " 
— Town  meetings  ruling  Presbytery — Reproached — A  committee  to 
visit  Presbytery — To  be  informed  also  by  letter — The  letter,  June  1st, 
1795 — A  strong  remonstrance— They  answer  and  glory  in  numbers 
and  light — A  new  king  enthroned — A  contrast  to  Westrunning  Brook 
and  Casco  Bay — "Most  plaintive" — A  letter  from  Synod,  January 
24th,  1797 — "Stating  their  views  and  grounds  of  complaint" — A 
masterly  argument— M.iiohless  and  unanswerable — A  reply  on  May 
30th,  1797 — Good  intentions — Providentially  prevented — Case  de- 
ferred— None  from  Londonderry  Presbytery  next  two  meetings— To 
see  if  to  dissolve  the  connection  would  be  beneficial — Only  Morrison 
and  Taggart  now  appear  to  have  been  trained  as  Presbyterians— A 
mild  form — Advantage — Ignored  a  Synod  which  prevented  will  wor- 
ship— "Changes  borrowed" — "Eelt  want" — The  harp — Voted,  Oc- 
tober 9,  1799,  to  obtain  and  peruse — R.  Annan  reappointed  in  1799 — 
No  reply  to  him  in  1800— No  member  in  Synod  in  1801 — Minute — 
Presbytery  disclaimed — The  process  of  assimilation  completed — Ex- 
cepting in  godly  families  " to  the  moles  and  to  the  bats" — In  both 
versions— The  Presbytery,  September  6th,  1797,  "  Moor,  Whipple  and 
Boddily  correspondents" — "The  act  valid" — Little  licensed — New- 
bury received  and  Toombs  installed,  November  28tli — June  12th, 
1799,  assistance  to  ordain  Mr.  Slea  at  Byefield  not  granted — Necessity 
for  sending  preaching  to  the  frontiers  of  New  Hampshire — The  letter 
to  be  answered — D.  Annan's  case  attended  to — Presbytery  now  incon- 
sistent— They  wotild  not  lend  to  ordain  Slea,  and  now  borrow  to  or- 
dain Little  at  Antrim — A  peace-ofiering— Little  asks  Presbytery  to  be 
so  kind  as  to  excuse  him — Excused  from  giving  his  popular  sermon 
on  account  of  visiting  so  many  sick — He  is  ordained  September  2d, 
1800 — Constitution  to  be  considered,  sermons  to  be  criticised — D. 
McGregor  licensed,  June  9th,  1802— Taggart  applies — Dana  directed 
— Assembly's  Constitution  adopted,  October  13th,  1802,  in  substance. 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  285 

not  in  toto — Still  unprepared  to  unite — Giles  installed — Colby — Pem- 
broke— Chester — Presbytery  cannot  grant  Goflstown's  request — D. 
McGregor  called  to  Bedford — Letter  froua  town-clerk  of  Peterboro — 
Their  father's  property — Presbytery  recommend  intercommunion — 
Promiscuous,  not  in  use  hitherto — Oliver  demits — He  is  certified — • 
The  Associate  Presbytery  of  Cambridge,  October  15th,  1804 — He 
broke  his  pledge  to  the  Associate  Presbytery — Rev.  D.  McGregor  and 
Bedford — Little  released — June  12th,  1805,  recommended  to  the  As- 
sociate Reformed  Presbytery  of  Washington,  N.  Y. — October  9th, 
Harris  installed  in  Windham — "The  enticing  words  of  man's  wis- 
dom " — A  new  certificate  granted — New  Boston — Rev.  E.  Bradfoi'd — 
Presbytery  meetings — "  Pidgeon  reprehended '" — Appointments  made, 
June  11th,  1807,  for  Synod  at  Cooperstown,  N.  Y. — Pidgeon  sus- 
pended— Minot,  in  Maine,  want  him,  and  they  are  "  informed  of  the 
restt/f  of  Presbytery" — Wiiiton  settled  at  Antrim — Letter  from  Dr. 
John  Smith  on  Union — An  inference — Church  at  Dartmouth  to  con- 
nect with  Presbytery — Rotation  meetings — Litchfield  received — Pel- 
ham  people  inconsistent — $250  additional — "  To  negotiate  a  connec- 
tion " — Moderator  to  answer  a  vote  of  the  General  Association  of  New 
Hampshire — October  2(ith,  1809,  result  of  mission  to  Synod — Dana  to 
the  Assembly,  1810 — Baldwin  dismissed  from  Palmer — End  of  Rec- 
ords of  Second  Presbytery  of  Londonderry  at  1810 — A  copy — By  loss 
of  Records  we  must  draw  from  incidental  sources — In  Vermont  Rec- 
ords of  psalm-singing  churches — The  pleasantness  of  domestic  worship 
lost  extensively — "  Expressive  silence  " — Federal  Street  Church — 
Belknapp  published  history  and  poetry — Popkin — Effects  of  misrule 
and  no  rule — Trust-deed  operative  formerly  with  the  owners — Not  so 
now — Like  savages — Pay  as  they  pleased  now — Channing — Neither 
orator  nor  numbers  brought  peace — Naboth's  oflTer — Legislature  in- 
voked— Action  taken — Not  too  far  off  to  whisper  to  its  owner — Con- 
science yet  extensively  a  power — That  oath — Aided  by  the  bar — The 
seasons — The  want  of  legal  authority — The  occupants  make  "  their 
courage  cheery" — A  document — The  religious  society — Act  passed — 
Furtive  legislation — The  last  parish — Presbyterianism  robbed  of  a 
place  of  sepulture  on  its  own  ground — Channing  installed  as  a  Trini- 
tarian— All  were  sinking  together — Controversy  was  rife — Little  com- 
munion among  churches  with  each  other — Hopkinsianism,  Emmon- 
ism — Sapling — The  new  preacher  has  at  times  a  charmed  character 
— A  contract  made  seventy-four  years  before — A  parsonage — Smooth 
things — The  tidal-wave— He  was  not  a  perfect  exception —  Vermont — 
A  coefficient — The  sovereignty  of  the  Green  mountains — Barnet  and 
Ryegate — Dr.  Witherspoon — Whitelaw — "  The  Scots-American  Com- 
pany " — This  purchase  from  Dr.  Witherspoon — "The  Farmer's  Com- 
pany"— Harvey — Emigrants  worshipped  God  in  their  families — 
Eflforts  to  obtain  public  religious  ordinances — Dr.  Witherspoon's  visits 
to  them — Saddle  bore  the  mark  of  the  ball  that  killed  his  son — 
"Caledonia"  Company — Crime  but  little  known — A  form  of  religion 
chosen  in  Barnet — Petition  for  a  minister — Rev.  Thomas  Beveridge — 
Rev.  D.  Goodwillie — Rev.  W.Gibson  settles  in  Ryegate — Polls,  clocks, 
scholars,  town  valuation — Their  lives  often  endangered — Endurance 


286  HISTORY  OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

required  in  winter  to  attend  public  worship — "Intermission,"  liow 
spent — "  Sabbatli-day  houses'' — Miss  H.  Seaver's  house — Stoves  came 
slowly  into  use — So  far  as  to  appreciate — Goodwiliie  for  above  twenty 
years — Outgrowth — Their  vows — Dwelt  alone  and  prospered — No 
voice  of  joy  east  of  the  Connecticut  while  they  read  and  prayed — The 
Bells  and  others — "Expressive  silence" — The  one  connecting  link — 
Official  duties  performed  by  Presbytery — Connecting  link  between 
Synods — Presbvterv  of  Londonderrv,  their  actings,  till  1818 — E,ev. 
W.Morrison  died'l818— Rev.  S.  Moore  died  in  1803— Baldwin  an 
inevitable  consequence — E.  L.  Parker  licensed  by  Grafton  Presbytery 
in  1807 — Extinct  in  1816 — Ecclesiastical  and  educational  matters  now 
increasingly  controlled  by  the  State  religion — This  brought  strife  in 
1817 — Spoliation  of  property  increases — First  Parish,  1809 — Jonah 
and  his  union — Parker  ordained,  September  12lh,  1810,  by  a  half- 
way arrangement — In  ninety-one  years  the  old  mother-church  had 
only  one  life  annuity,  and  had  settled  her  last  nominal  Presbyterian 
minister — It  took  forty  years  to  shunt  her  ofl^ — A  new  form  of  opposi- 
tion— Unitarianism — Negations — The  principles  and  doctrines — Jesus 
liad  no  more  pre-existence  than  any  other  man — None  will  perish — 
Elevated  to  the  highest  plane. 

While  we  can  easily  understand  how  all  the  passengers 
and  traffic  from  four  or  more  parallel  railroad  lines  can  be 
taken  upon  one,  and  yet  that  one  does  not  grow  an  inch 
wider  from  Cheyenne  to  Sacramento;  still  we  would  natu- 
rally expect,  that  when  the  fragments  of  tlie  Presbytery  of 
Salem  (which  seemed  to  be  in  moderate  working  order, 
when  it  was  composed  of  Whittaker,  Perley  and  Strick- 
land, present;  and  Baldwin,  Bnlch,  IMiltimore  and  Urqu- 
hart,  absent;  and  when  at  Gray,  in  Maine,  on  September 
14th,  1791,  it  adjourned  sine  die)  saw  the  other  two  Pres- 
byteries unite,  some  individual  ministers^  or  congregations, 
would  seek  their  fellowship.  But  not  so.  They  were  prob- 
ably all  (excepting  Baldwin)  witli  congregations,  which 
had  come  to  Presbyterianism  as  an  expedient,  not  on  prin- 
ciple from  positive  convictions  of  its  divine  origin  and 
authority,  and  in  some  cases  the  semi-Erastianism  of  the 
State  church  controlled  the  ministry  and  eldership.  Since 
the  war,  as  noticed  in  Bath  KoL  the  force  of  truth  was  less 
felt,  God  was  less  honored,  the  love  of  many  waxed  cold, 
and  iniquity  was  abounding  increasingly ;  hence,  some  of 
them  as  Dr.  Whittaker,  after  being  starved  out,  emigrated. 
Urquhart  removed  eastward,  and  died  near  Mirimichi, 
New  Brunswick. 

The  return  of  peace  to  the  colonies  had  a  further  effect 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  287 

on  the  state  churches  of  New  England,  in  allowing  the 
office  of  elder  to  float  into  oblivion.  Consequently,  the  in- 
fluence of  this  one  of  "  the  customs  of  the  churches  "  had 
with  the  flight  of  time  on  the  Presbyterian  vitality,  pre- 
viously existing,  a  corresponding  effect. 

As,  in  this  last  one-third  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
introduction  of  the  third  vital  power  of  Popery  into  Pro- 
testantism is,  pari  passu,  weakening  it;  as  the  confes- 
sional, transubstantiation,  and  choirs  with  the  organ  are 
the  tripod  upon  which  Popery  mainly  rests,  so  any  of 
these,  but  especially  the  last,  being  removed,  it  would 
topple,  its  proselyting  attractions  would  then  be  lost,  for 
Protestants  could  not  be  proselyted  with  either  the  confes- 
sional or  transubstantiation,  or  with  both,  or  with  beads, 
baldachins  and  holy  water  thrown  in.  The  contest  lies 
mainly  between  the  "  Genevan  jigs  "  (as  the  papists  nick- 
named the  Psalms  when  sung)  and  choirs,  hymns  and  or- 
gans. So  the  increased  aping  "the  gorgeous  compositions 
which  are  heard  in  the  Romish  church  "  by  nominal  Pro- 
testants, is  obtaining  progressively  that  control  over  the 
mind  which  the  Divine  authority  of  revealed  truth  ought 
ever  alone  to  maintain,  and  permeating  a  large  part  of  the 
so-called  "  evangelical "  churches  with  the  leaven  of  will- 
worship.  In  a  similar  manner  the  purity  of  the  doctrine 
and  the  excellence  of  the  morals  of  the  Puritans  fell  into 
the  rear  rank,  while  Congregationalism,  in  worship,  be- 
came increasingly  a  matter  of  opinion  under  the  elastic 
forces  of  "  the  customs  of  the  churches."  The  psalmody 
of  the  pilgrims  was  gone,  and  the  Bay  State  version  of  the 
Puritans,  about  this  period,  became  increasingly  super- 
seded by  the  parts  of  139  of  the  Psalms  imitated  and  in 
use,  producing  for  a  generation  much  "  strife  and  vain- 
glory " —  all  which,  by  the  principle  of  assimilation, 
brought  the  Presbyterians  to  give  up,  in  several  particu- 
lars, their  "thus  saith  the  Lord"  for  the  "tastes"  of 
men. 

The  State  religion  had  always  maintained,  under  the 
severest  penalties,  the  Godhead  of  the  Trinity.  Until  1786 
it  was  blasphemy  to  deny  this,  yet,  with  the  increasing 
diversity  of  human  opinions,  as  these  supplanted  the  au- 
thority of  the  Divine  word,  even  this  foundation  was  in 
due  time  sapped.     The  Old  South  meeting-house  having 


288  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

been  desecrated  by  the  British  mihtary,  on  the  evacuation 
of  Boston,  that  congregation  occupied  for  years  King's 
chapel  (founded  in  1686),  from  which,  all  orders  of  prelacy 
had  departed;  and  when,  having  repaired  their  church, 
they  returned  to  it,  leaving  the  other  unoccupied,  and  it 
continued  so  for  some  time.  The  thread  of  apostolical 
succession  over  the  premises  held  formerly  by  the  Bishop 
of  London  became  too  attenuated  to  retain  in  it  even  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 

Every  vestige  of  prelacy  (excepting  a  few  outward  forms) 
was  discarded  by  the  overwhelming  force  of  Congregation- 
alism, and  while  in  that  chapel,  in  1785,  it  was  introduced 
into  America,  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  was  guilt- 
less of  the  crime  of  reproducing  there  the  protoplast  of 
Socinianism.  On  reoccupying  the  edifice,  the  only  de- 
nominational official  remaining  was  the  clerk ;  and  in 
order  to  give  form  to  their  religious  assemblies,  the  people, 
b}^  vote,  elected  him  to  be  their  reader^  by  the  power  of 
Congregationalism,  which  they  assumed  and  adopted. 

The  next  thing  in  their  metamorphosis  was  to  change 
the  doctrine,  and  they  adopted  the  theological  views  in 
part  of  an  English  Socinian  of  the  name  of  Clarke.  The 
human  mind  ever  idolizes  freedom,  and,  as  a  counterpart 
to  national  existence  and  independence,  disregard  of  doc- 
trine grew  apace.  Murray  had  previously,  since  1773, 
propagated  (where  he  could)  the  doctrinal  opinions  of  Mr. 
James  Relly,  giving  a  through  ticket  to  Paradise  univer- 
sally to  the  race.  "Arminianism  "  (as  we  have  seen)  had 
"become  respectable,"  and  one  Benjamin  Randall,  in  1780, 
began  to  preach  as  a  "  Free  Will  Baptist "  in  New  Dur- 
ham, N.  H. 

With  the  return  of  peace  "  new  gods  came  newly  up." 
"  Divers  and  strange  doctrines  "  were  propagated  with  a 
zeal  worthy  of  a  better  cause,  and  in  1799  the  State  religion 
in  Massachusetts  was  extensively  shorn  of  her  preroga- 
tives. Protestant  prelacy  and  Wesleyan  Methodism  both, 
in  a  few  years  (after  peace  was  concluded),  returned  to  and 
revived  in  New  England.  "  During  the  war,  according  to 
D'Arcy  McGee,  the  Abbe  la  Poitre,  a  chaplain,  collected  a 
papal  congregation  in  Boston,  which  bought  the  French 
Presbyterian  church,  and  after  1796  Priest  Cheverus,  with 
his  beads,  crucifixes,  ointment,  organ,  chrism  and  man 
millinery,  gradually  attracted  '  the  town's  people.' " 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  '  289 

The  close  of  that  century  was  considered  to  be  ^'the 
golden  age"  of  Boston,  and  by  his  blandishments,  his 
suaviter  in  modo,  his  French  (the  language  of  courts),  he 
made  an  increasingly  favorable  impression  on  the  children 
of  the  Puritans.  The  influences  of  these  combined  ingre- 
dients of  the  social  compact  were  such  as  to  "gain"  to 
"  pure  and  undefiled  religion  "  "  much  harm  and  loss," 
especially  among  Presbyterians. 

Where  any  form  of  religion  strongly  predominates,  the 
weight  and  force  of  sectarian  numbers  proportionally  as- 
similates to  itself  minor  existences ;  and  while  Presbyteri- 
anism  continued  in  some  places  to  have  "  a  name  to  liye," 
it  was  overshadowed,  its  doctrine  deteriorated,  its  govern- 
ment supplanted  and  its  places  of  worship  alienated  by 
the  pew  patronage  of  the  State  religion.  The  ministry  re- 
ceived no  reinforcements  of  such  men  as  McGregor,  or 
Moorehead,  or  Robert  Annan,  from  lands  sealed  by  the 
blood  of  martyrs. 

To  "endure  all  things  for  the  elect's  sake,  that  they 
might  also  obtain  the  salvation  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
with  eternal  glory  "  became  less  a  matter  of  ambition  with 
the  occupants  of  the  pulpit  in  New  England  generall}^  and 
succeeding  Presbyterian  preachers  only  showed  that  in  this 
direction  they  were  "  men  of  like  passions  with  others." 
Taking  into  the  account  that  "  forbidden  fruit  is  sweet,"  it 
is  easy  to  see  that,  with  not  a  few,  the  law  of  Christ's 
house  might  be  viewed  as  a  burden,  and  young  men  (such 
as  the  two  sons  of  the  Rev.  Simon  Williams)  might  enter 
the  ministry  of  an  opposite  polity. 

When  we  again  remember  the  system  of  domestic  train- 
ing, in  doctrine  and  famil}^  worship,  which  enter  into  the 
vitality  of  Presbyterianism,  and  find  these  gradually  ne- 
glected by  those  surrounding  them,  we  see  that,  in  every 
way,  on  this  ungenial  soil,  extensive  growth  could  not  be 
expected.  Hence,  the  dying  out  of  Presbyteries  and  the 
course  of  fragments  of  churches  succumbing  to  Congre- 
gationalism, with  which  we  enter  on  this  quarter  of  a 
century. 

On  February  15,  1791,  the  Rev.  William  Davidson,  of 

Derry,  died,  and  the  congregation  remained  destitute  of  a 

settled  ministry  till  1795,  when  Mr.  Jonathan  Brown  (a 

native  of  Pittsfield,  N.  H.)  was  ordained  and  installed.    A 

19 


290  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIAXISM 

number  of  churches  were  then  vacant,  and  while,  as  a 
licentiate,  he  was  popular  in  other  places,  still  "  a  strong 
and  determined  opposition  to  his  settlement  was  made  by 
a  large  minority." 

The  court  did  not  act  with  wisdom  in  ordaining  him. 
His  situation  became  trying  and  unjAeasant,  and  tlie  agi- 
tation engendered  weakened  the  church  by  forming  a  pre- 
text to  those  thus  incHned  to  introduce  Congregationalism, 
both  ecclesiastically  and  civilly. 

While  this  offshoot  maintained  worship  for  twelve  years 
in  a  hall,  it  "produced  not  only  bitterness  and  contro- 
versies, which  for  a  time  greatly  marred  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  the  community,"  but  prepared  the  way,  in 
the  course  of  half  a  century,  for  the  abandonment  of  Pres- 
byterianism  by  this  mother  church  and  the  alienation  of 
her  property.  "At  his  own  request,  he  was  dismissed  in 
1804,  and  died  in  1838,  at  the  age  of  eighty.  He  was  a 
man  of  sincere  piety,  but  leading  a  single  life  (when  he 
ought  to  have  had  a  wife  to  '  guide  '  his  '  house  '),  he  sub- 
jected himself  to  many  uncandid  and  unkind  remarks, 
and  was  required  l)y  the  Presbytery  not  to  preach,  nor  to 
perform  any  official  acts  after  his  dismission.  He  had  se- 
vere trials,  and  toward  the  end  of  life  endured  many  spir- 
itual conflicts."  (P.)  The  Presbytery  were  now  gradually 
abandoning  their  Presbyterial  relations. 

Palmer  Continued  to  enjoy  the  pastoral  labors  of  the 
Rev.  Moses  Baldwin,  while  the  Rev.  Mr.  Taggart  was  still 
fulfilling  his  ministry  at  Coleraine. 

At  Newburyport,  on  November  19,  1794,  Mr.  Daniel 
Dana  was  ordained  and  installed  as  the  successor  of  the 
Rev.  John  Murray.  He  was  born  in  Ipswich,  Mass.,  on 
July  24,  1771,  and  graduated  from  Dartmouth  in  1788. 
"  His  settlement  was  preceded  and  succeeded  by  disrup- 
tion. The  pulpit  had  been  supplied  during  the  winter  of 
1792,  at  Mr.  Murray's  invitation,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Milton, 
a  young  missionary  from  Lady  Huntingdon's  school  at 
Trevecca;  an  earnest,  eloquent  and  original  preacher,  al- 
though eccentric  as  a  man.  Many  were  delighted  with 
him,  and  would  have  retained  him  as  colleague  pastor. 
But  the  majority  being  unwilling,  his  friends  withdrew, 
and,  under  the  plea  of  '  better  edification,'  established  wor- 
ship in  a  private  house."    After  Mr.  Murray's  death,  and 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  29l 

while  under  suspension  for  a  breach  of  covenant,  they  re- 
nounced the  government,  built  a  house  of  worship,  and 
organized  an  "  independent  Calvinistic "  church.  Six 
males  and  nine  females  signed  the  covenant;  a  session  was 
appointed,  and  Mr.  Milton  became  pastor. 

The  forms  of  installation  were  quite  anomalous;  for 
after  sermon,  Deacon  Solomon  Haskell  put  the  call  to  vote, 
and  declared  him  their  minister.  Having  delivered  the 
Bible  to  him  and  told  him  what  system  of  doctrines  he 
was  to  present,  he  informed  him  that  "  so  long  as  he  did 
this  and  behaved  well,  they  should  acknowledge  him  as 
their  teacher,  and  no  longer."  He  then  proceeded  to  give 
to  him  a  "charge"  liow  to  preach.  Thus  originated  the 
Prospect  street  church. 

Here  was  spontaneous  Congregationalism  (F.,  p.  36)  pro- 
ducing a  nominal  Presbyterianism — a  church  with  a  ses- 
sion. The  deacon  played  the  apostle  in  the  name  of  four- 
teen members  and  himself  to  his  "  son  "  in  the  ministry 
(1  Tim.  i.  18).  The  transaction  looked  a  little  like  "a 
spectacle  unto  the  world,"  if  not  "to  angels;"  yet  it  gave 
to  Mr.  Milton  "the  power"  contained  in  nine  women  and 
six  men,  "  under  suspension  for  breach  of  covenant,"  to 
"make  full  proof  of  his  ministry." 

Although  this  was  "  a  more  thin  and  tenuous  film  "  of 
"the  power  of  a  church  court"  than  Murray's,  in  perme- 
ating the  two  Congregationalist  ministers  and  three  congre- 
gations and  constituting  a  Presbytery,  it  was,  according  to 
the  "Boston  Congregational  Almanac,  1847,  p.  43,"  not 
only  adequate,  but  plenary ;  for  "  all  church  power  resides 
in  the  church,  and  not  in  church  officers,  and  resides  in 
each  particular  church  directly  and  originally,  by  virtue 
of  the  express  or  implied  compact  of  its  members."  Their 
"  suspension  for  breach  of  covenant "  was  only  the  act  of 
"  church  officers,"  whom  they  had  solemnly  vowed  to  obey, 
and  "  Go  to,  let  us,"  was  more  congenial  to  their  wishes 
than  "  Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you,  and  submit 
yourselves ;  for  they  watch  for  your  souls."  Species  can- 
not be  transmuted. 

Murray's  ecclesiastical  claims  were  ignored  by  all  true 
Presbyterians,  while  this  "  church  of  Jesus  Christ "  flour- 
ished in  its  own  way  for  six  years,  when  it  made  "  some 
concessions  as  to  the  manner  of  withdrawal,  and  the  ses- 
Bion  removed  their  censure."     (76.) 


292  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

The  annual  average  admissions  to  this  church  had  been 
— under  Parsons,  ten,  and  under  Murray,  seven. 

A  Mr.  Samuel  Tomb,  a  licentiate,  an  old-fashioned 
preacher,  was  called  thrice  by  a  majority  of  this  congrega- 
tion, but  under  strong  feeling  the  requests  all  failed,  and, 
while  Mr.  Dana  was  called  in  June,  he  was  not  installed 
till  November,  and  then  in  the  face  of  ''  a  decided  opposi- 
tion and  after  a  remonstrance  to  Presbytery."  His  father, 
by  vote  of  Presbytery,  preached  the  ordination  sermon. 

"  The  dissentients  then  in  their  turn  withdrew,  including 
most  of  the  session  and  many  of  the  most  substantial  and 
godly  members  of  the  church.  This  opi)osition  to  Mr. 
Dana  was  principally  owing  to  a  misunderstanding  of  his 
doctrinal  views."  (76.,  p.  31.)  They  were  strenuous  about 
*'  sound  doctrine,"  but  could  not  perceive  it  (while  it 
was  there),  concealed  extensively  by  the  graces  of  his 
style. 

"  In  July,  1795,  they  proposed,  as  a  peace  measure,  that 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Boddily  should  become  colleague  with  Mr. 
Dana.  This  failed,  and  in  October  next  the  Presbytery 
organized  them  as  the  second  Presbyterian  church,  with 
thirty-three  members."  (76.,  p.  31.)  The  first  Presbyterian 
church,  though  weakened,  remained  with  him  (Mr.  Dana) 
an  affectionate  and  united  people. 

This  church  (we  have  seen)  was  one  which  came  to 
Presbyterianism  while  its  members  were  of  that  stock,  to 
escape  the  oppression  of  Congregationalism. 

As  the  law  (enacted  always  by  a  Congregationalist  legis- 
lature) "then  was,  they  were  forced,  in  order  to  obtain 
libert}^  and  rights  from  Church  and  State,  to  become  an- 
other denomination ;  and  to  guard  themselves  and  their 
children  so  far  as  possible  against  the  evils  they  had  seen 
and  suffered,  against  false  doctrine  and  oppression,  they 
became  Presbyterians."  Like  Edwards,  they  were  "  out 
of  conceit  with  what  was  unsettled,  independent,  and  con- 
fused." 

"  Their  first  act  was  to  choose  six  ruling  elders."  The 
Rev.  John  Murray  was  unwilling  (when  called)  to  settle  in 
this  congregation,  because  "  the  visitation  of  families,  as 
Presbyterian  pastors  do,  was  not  customary  with  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Parsons,  except  on  extraordinary  occasions ; "  and  "  in 
1780,  the  session  districted  the  parish." 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  Zyd 

"  The  session  has  often  been  the  safety  of  the  church, 
preserving  its  unity  and  maintaining  its  discipline  and 
purity,  when  otherwise  false  doctrine  might  have  intruded 
and  order  have  been  lost."  (76.) 

Having  seen  the  two  Presbyterian  churches  in  Newbury- 
port,  after  October,  1795,  pressing  forward  abreast,  I  now 
turn  to  the  meagre  records  of  Presbytery. 

On  October  25th,  1793,  a  convention  met  at  Londonderry 
"  for  finishing  the  union  between  the  Associate  Eeformed 
Presbytery  of  Londonderry  and  the  Presbytery  at  the 
Eastward,  and  being  fully  invested  with  power,  formed  a 
union,"  and  styled  themselves  henceforth  "the  Presbytery 
of  Londonderr3\"  On  the  last  Wednesday  in  May,  1794, 
at  Derry,  there  were  present  Rev.  Messrs.  Solomon  Moore, 
William  Morrison,  Nathaniel  Ewer,  John  Houston,  David 
Annan,  Samuel  Taggart,  Andrew  Oliver,  and  nine  ruling 
elders,  who  unanimously  approved  of  the  union  formed 
by  the  convention.  Petitions  for  the  services  of  Mr. 
Toombs  were  presented  from  New  Market  and  Antrim, 
and  one  from  "  the  Presbyterian  society  in  Bedford,  asking 
to  have  the  inhabitants  of  that  town  act  consistently  with 
Christian  character."  They  had  employed  a  Mr.  Pickles — 
who  had  been  deposed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia, 
and  who  was  immoral  in  character — and  the  petitioners 
ask,  "  Have  any  of  the  inhabitants  any  special  right  to 
special  privileges  from  this  Presb3^tery  or  from  any  of  its 
members  ?  "  The  action  of  those  who  employed  him  was 
condemned. 

In  reference  to  irregularities  already  referred  to  in  New- 
buryport,  in  answer  to  a  petition,  the  action  of  session  was 
confirmed. 

On  their  request,  supplies  were  granted  to  Derry,  and 
Mr.  Brown  was,  in  answer  to  their  verbal  petitions,  ap- 
pointed for  four  Sabbaths  to  Hampton. 

Chester  petitioned  for  supply,  and  Messrs.  Toombs, 
Brown,  and  Wallace  were  appointed  to  labor  in  assigned 
vacancies. 

The  leaven  had  now  permeated  nearly  the  whole  mass 
of  professed  Presbyterians  in  New  England,  and  we  have 
seen  about  a  score  of  these  congregations  absorbed  by  the 
State  religion.  Among  those  which  had  stood  firm  for 
§pme  fifty  years  in  reference  to  the  offering  of  "a  pure 


294  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

offering"  to  God  in  praise,  was  West  Derry.  But  she 
had  now  become  under  that  mysterious  identity  "  a  felt 
want,"  enamored  with  "the  enticing  words  of  man's 
wisdom." 

"  Mr.  Joel  Barlow,  who,  on  receiving  a  degree  from  Yale 
College,  in  1778,  then  first  came  before  the  public  in  his 
poetical  character  by  reciting  an  original  poem,  was  suc- 
cessively a  chaplain  in  the  Revolutionary  army,  an  editor, 
a  bookseller,  a  lawyer,  and  a  merchant." 

He  published  in  London  a  poem,  called  "  The  Conspir- 
acy of  Kings,"  and  "  in  the  latter  part  of  1792  he  was 
appointed  one  of  the  deputies  from  the  London  Constitu- 
tional Society  to  present  an  address  to  the  National  Con- 
vention of  France,"  with  which  they  were  in  sympathy. 
This  body  had  "  formally  disavowed  the  existence  of  God 
and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  disseminated  atheism." 
(Home.)  His  most  popular  poem,  published  before  1795, 
was  entitled  ''  Hasty  Pudding."  He  had,  however,  in  his 
earlier  days,  before  1787,  "  revised  Dr.  Watts'  Imitation  of 
David's  Psalms  "  (Pres.  Dig.,  p.  208),  that  is,  the  139  imi- 
tated. 

Whetlier  this  was  a  labor  of  love  to  improve  his  poetical 
talent,  or  done  by  the  request  of  "the  General  Association 
of  Connecticut,"  his  "  advanced  thought,"  as  one  of  the 
morning  stars  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Avas  unsavory  to 
the  pious  in  "  the  land  of  steady  habits  " — and  "  to  sanctify 
the  ticket,"  as  among  modern  politicians,  Frelinghuysen 
was  put  in  nomination  with  the  duellist,  Henry  Clay — so 
"the  Pvev.  Dr.  Timothy  D wight,  by  order  of  the  said  asso- 
ciation, revised  the  version  as  revised  by  Mr.  Barlow,  and 
versified  a  number  omitted  by  Watts." 

In  "  1787,  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
allowed  the  Imitation  of  David's  Psalms,  as  revised  by  Mr. 
Barlow,  to  be  sung  in  congregations  and  families  under 
their  care."  (/6.,  208.) 

Since  the  close  of  the  war,  as  we  have  seen  in  Bath  Kol, 
the  moral  sentiment  of  the  land  had  been  gradually  wax- 
ing feeble,  and  this  abatement  of  force,  like  "judgment," 
began  with  "  the  house  of  God."  Changes  in  material  pros- 
i:)erity  seem  to  have  been  accompanied  by  innovations  in 
doctrine,  worship,  and  discipline  in  the  churches. 

"  The  Imitations  "  were,  among  the  Presbyterian  churches 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  295 

to  the  southward,  in  1802  (Dig.,  p.  209),  vamped  with  his 
three  books  of  hymns ;  and  while  in  no  way  was  either 
dependence  or  control  established  between  any  of  the 
Presbyteries  of  New  England  and  what  became,  in  1789, 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
still  they  were  duly  informed  of  the  changes  introduced, 
and  at  this  meeting  (in  1794)  "a  petition  from  West  Derry 
(was  presented)  to  use  Dr.  Watts'  psalms,  corrected  and 
enlarged  by  Mr.  Joel  Barlow,  and  recommended  by  the 
General  Association  of  Connecticut  and  by  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterians  in  the  Southward."  This 
was  "referred  back  to  the  session,  to  act  for  the  general 
good  of  the  society  in  that  case." 

At  meetings  on  October  1st,  1794,  and  subsequently,  the 
varied  matters  mentioned  in  relation  to  the  settlement  of 
Mr.  Daniel  Dana  received  attention,  while  a  call  from  New 
Market  for  Mr.  Toombs  was  read  and  sustained.  His  instal- 
lation took  place  on  October  21st,  when  Rev.  Messrs.  McClin- 
tock  and  Miltimore  (Congregationalists)  sat  as  correspond- 
ents. ''  The  Rev.  Messrs.  Moore,  Annan,  and  Morrison  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  wait  on  the  Amherst  association, 
respecting  something  for  the  general  good  of  the  church." 
Trials  for  licensure  "were  assigned  to  Mr.  Wm.  Pidgeon. 

Eight  ministers  and  fourteen  elders  w^ere  present  at  the 
stated  meeting  at  Londonderry,  on  May  27th,  1795.  Nine 
papers  were  presented,  and  the  court  had  abundance  of 
business,  as  the  opposition  to  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Brown 
W'as  then  considered.  Presbyter}^  "advised  the  Congrega- 
tional church  of  Hampton  to  give  up  their  negative  power 
over  the  town  in  the  settlement  of  a  minister."  That  is, 
let  the  town  meeting  rule  the  church  and  vote  it  Presby- 
terian. 

At  Londonderry,  on  October  28th,  1795,  a  call  from 
Peterboro  was  sustained.  Coleraine  did  not  then  appear 
to  be  walking  in  harmony  wath  this  court,  and  the  town 
was  to  be  "  seasonably  notified,  by  the  clerk,  of  our  next 
meeting,  and  that  they  show  reasons,  if  any  they  have," 
why  their  conduct  should  not  be  investigated.  Mr.  Pidgeon 
accepted  the  call  from  Hampton,  and  this  congregation 
w^as  received  by  Presbytery.  A  Congregationalist  church, 
by  the  advice  of  Presbytery,  yielded  to  a  Presbyterian 
parish.    Jordan  was  rolled  backward  once. 


296  HISTORY  OF  TRESBYTERIANISM 

A  letter  from  the  A.  R.  Synod  was  now  received,  and  the 
clerk  (Rev.  Wm.  Morrison)  was  appointed  to  answer  it, 
"  when  he  thinks  most  conducive  to  the  public  good  of 
this  Presbytery,  and  to  give  a  general  account  of  that  part 
of  our  conduct  respecting  psalmody  and  our  absence  from 
Synod,  with  the  reasons  therewith." 

January  7th,  179G.  A  pro  re  nata  meeting  was  held  on 
account  of  Mr.  Pidgeon  and  those  against  him  at  Hamp- 
ton. They  then  and  there  ordained  him,  and  "voted — 
that  we  advise  our  Presbyterian  brethren  to  deal  honor- 
ably and  justly  with  the  congregational  part  of  the  town, 
respecting  the  ministerial  property." 

On  May  4th,  at  Coleraine,  the  court  advised  that  congre- 
gation to  "  no  longer  quarrel  about  the  locality  of  their 
place  of  worship,  and  appointed  Mr.  Morrison  to  draw  up 
an  address  to  them  for  Presbytery." 

The  vital  force  of  this  form  of  ecclesiastical  regimen  had 
now  become  so  attenuated  that  occasionally  Congregational 
societies  desired  to  wear  the  name,  especially  where  diffi- 
culties had  arisen,  and  on  June  14th,  1796,  a  jn'o  re  nata 
meeting  was  held  in  Byefield. 

A  "  petition  from  parties  there  to  be  received  as  a  Pres- 
byterian society  was  presented."  On  investigation,  it  was 
found  that  the  movement  had  originated  in  "strife  and 
vainglory,"  Satan  acting  as  the  chairman  of  their  church 
extension  committee.  Hence,  it  was  "  Voted — That  we 
address  the  JNIiddle  Essex  association  to  advise  the  church 
here  to  keep  the  peace." 

"  It  must  needs  be  that  offences  come,"  and  so  unyield- 
ing were  the  disputants  in  Coleraine  about  the  location  of 
their  church,  that  their  pastor,  at  a  meeting  held  in  Lon- 
donderry, on  October  12tli,  requested  his  release  from  the 
charge  and  a  dismission  from  the  Presbytery.  As  his  use- 
fulness among  them  was  not  obviously  at  an  end,  and 
their  spiritual  prosperity  required  an  oversight,  which,  in 
the  event  of  his  removal,  might  not  easil}^  be  obtained,  so, 
to  prevent  them  from  being,  as  a  church,  "consumed  one 
of  another,"  his  petition  was  returned  to  him. 

Windham  now  petitioned  for  a  supply  of  preaching. 

1797,  at  Londonderry,  on  iNIay  17th,  a  request  was  pre- 
sented by  the  second  church  in  Newburyport,  to  have  Mr. 
Boddily  settled  as  their  pastor.     On  September  6th,  1797, 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  297 

Mr.  Boddily  was  reported  installed,  and  the  act  of  the 
committee  declared  to  be  valid. 

Among  the  petitions  presented  at  this  meeting,  number 
six  ''  was  a  request  from  East  Derry  for  liberty  to  use  Dr. 
AVatts'  Imitations  of  the  Psalms."  The  offshoot  of  1736 
(Londonderry)  was  thus  in  advance  of  the  mother  church 
of  1719  three  years,  in  conforming  to  the  "taste"  estab- 
lished by  "the  customs  of  the  churches"  in  New  England. 
The  consideration  of  this  petition  was  jDOStponed  until 
next  meeting. 

Tliese  varied  irregularities  on  the  part  of  the  A.  R.  Pres- 
bytery of  Londonderry  had  (as  has  been  noticed)  grieved 
the  Synod.  Varied  appliances  (implied  in  "review  and 
controul ")  had  been  used  by  the  Superior  Court,  but 
in  vain.  The  results  Avere  painfully  obvious ;  but  the 
character  and  full  course  of  the  causes  were  but  imper- 
fectly comprehended.  As  it  is  now,  Congregationalism 
was  then  sui:)posed  to  be  only  a  little  diticrent  from  Pres- 
byterianism — "  only  a  little  difference  about  government, 
you  know,  yet  substantially  the  same  " — while  they  are  in 
tlieir  nature,  origin,  influence,  and  tendencies,  irreconcil- 
ably antagonistical — the  one  will  root  out  the  other. 

The  clerk  was  appointed  in  1795  to  answer  a  letter,  and 
now,  in  1797,  the  "  Rev.  Messrs.  Annan,  Toombs  and  Mor- 
rison were  appointed  to  answer  the  address  from  Synod." 

I-Jistory  is  here,  and  at  this  date,  repeating  itself.  The 
troubles  which  disturbed  the  j^eace  of  the  Rev.  Solomon 
Prentice  forty-five  years  ago,  are  now  reproduced  in  the 
region  of  Newmarket.  Ever  since  the  days  of  the  apostles 
persons  have  been  (at  least  at  times)  found,  who  "  creep 
into  houses  and  lead  captive  those  silly  ones,"  who  in- 
dulge the  emotional  powers  or  feelings  of  their  minds,  in- 
stead of  "  getting  wisdom  and  with  all  their  getting  obtain- 
ing understanding."  As  the  purity  of  Puritanism  was 
diminished,  so  in  New  England  we  find  this  class  of  ad- 
venturers increased.  The  Rev.  Jonathan  Brown,,  when 
silenced  by  Presbytery  and  reduced  to  private  member- 
ship, which  he  held  till  the  day  of  his  death,  was  forbidden 
to  preach,  and  he  obeyed.  Not  so  with  "  unruly  and  vain 
talkers  "  under  the  auspices  of  the  other  polity.  In  the 
one  case,  the  "mouths"  of  such  persons  "must  be 
stopped.,"  in  the  other,  the  abettors  of  divers  and  strange 


298  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

doctrines  and  corresponding  practices  may  steal  the  hearts 
of  communities. 

Hence,  we  have  on  record,  "  The  Rev.  Mr.  Ewers  is  com- 
plained of  by  Mr.  Toombs,  as  encouraging  straggling  per- 
sons, calling  themselves  preachers,  to  the  great  injury  and 
dishonor  of  religion,  in  many  places,  particularly  in  New 
Market." 

"Voted,  unanimously.  That  this  Presbytery  solemnly 
recommend  to  vacant  churches  under  their  care,  that  they 
encourage  or  employ  no  strangers  as  preachers  among 
them  without  they  see  his  license,  or  approbation  from 
regular  ministers,  and  that  he  have  a  good  cliaracter." 

Few  operations  of  the  soul  are  more  powerful  than  this. 
"  I  would  to  God,  that  all  were,  not  only  almost,  but  alto- 
gether, such  as  I  am,"  and  where  this  has  in  prospect  good 
large  "  loaves  "  and  a  number  of  "  fishes,"  or  even  "  a  piecis 
of  money,  or  a  morsel  of  bread,"  proselyting  errorists 
would  be  seldom  out  of  sight,  excepting  for  the  discipline 
of  Christ's  house.  "  Peace  and  good-will  among  men,"  as 
well  as  "  })ure  and  undefiled  religion  before  God,  alike  re- 
quire, all  who  are  lawfully  put  in  trust  in  the  ministry," 
to  rebuke  all  such  "  liars,  evil  beasts,  slow-bellies,  sharply, 
that  they  may  be  sound  in  the  faith  "  (Tit.  i.  12).  By 
neglect  of  this,  the  Province  of  Maine,  where  the  last  Pres- 
bytery met  in  1791,  has  become,  religiously,  not  unlike  a 
"waste  howling  wilderness."  And  so  numerous  are  the 
sects  in  the  small  population  of  Rhode  Island  to-day,  that 
there  is  extensively  truth  as  well  as  humor  in  the  saying, 
"  If  a  man  lose  his  kind  of  religion,  let  him  go  to  Rhode 
Island  and  he  will  find  it "  among  the  crowd  there,  said 
to  be  some  forty  sects  in  number. 

In  enacting  this  statute,  and  taking  care  that  it  should 
be  executed,  where  required,Jhe  court  "took  heed  to  all 
the  flock,  over  the  which  the  Holy  Ghost  had  made  them 
bishops  to  feed  the  church  of  God,"  and  well  would  it  be, 
now  and  hereafter,  for  all  others  in  a  similar  position,  to 
*'go  and  do  likewise." 

It  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  Presbyterian  church  gov- 
ernment, that,  while  each  has  its  legitimate  field,  sphere 
and  work,  the  courts  have  interest  and  responsibility  pro- 
portionate to  their  authority.  Hence,  in  these  changes  of 
constitutional  law  and  violation  of  official  vows,  by  the 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  299 

Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  of  LoDclonderry,  the  Synod, 
and  through  it  the  denomination,  had  a  painful  interest. 
This  they  manifested.  Hence,  on  the  erection  of  the 
Washington,  N.  Y.,  Presbytery,  on  May  30th,  1794,  Synod 
met  "no  representation  from  the  New  England  Presby- 
tery," and  the  "  Rev.  R.  Annan  was  appointed  to  write  to 
them,  requiring  an  account  of  the  state  of  religion  among 
them  and  a  deputation  of  a  member,  or  members,  to  repre- 
sent them  in  Synod."  In  1795,  on  May  21st,  Mr.  Annan 
reported  that  he  had  "written  to  the  New  England  Pres- 
bytery but  had  received  no  answer." 

"The  state  of  that  Presbytery  being  under  considera- 
tion, it  was  stated  that  certain  information  had  been  re- 
ceived by  the  members  of  Synod,  that  Watts'  psalms  are 
generally  used  by  the  members  of  that  Presbytery  in  their 
churches,  that  they  hold  promiscuous  communion  with 
exceptionable  denominations ;  that  they  have  yielded  to 
the  town  meetings  several  points  of  Presbyterial  govern- 
ment, that  for  these  reasons  our  people  are  uneasy  and  re- 
proached. Appointed  Rev.  Messrs.  Annan,  Mason  and 
Clarke  a  committee,  to  visit  these  brethren  in  their  con- 
gregations and  deal  witli  them  affectionately,  to  remove 
all  grounds  of  uneasiness,  and  endeavor  to  prevail  on  them 
to  conduct  their  government  and  discipline,  according  to 
the  word  of  God  and  the  rules  of  this  church." 

They  were  also  to  be  informed  by  letter  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  visiting  committee.  The  letter,  written  on 
June  1st,  1795,  reads  thus: 

"  Rev.  and  dear  brethren  : — It  gives  us  no  small  un- 
easiness to  hear  of  some  things,  which  have  been  intro- 
duced among  you,  inconsistent  with  the  comely  order  to 
be  observed  in  the  house  of  God.  Some  of  these  are  the 
introduction  of  Watts'  imitations  of  the  Psalms  into  the 
worship  of  God  ;  holding  unnecessary  and  improper  com- 
munion with  other  denominations,  and  in  the  regulation 
of  your  congregational  affairs,  acting  repugnantly  to  the 
spirit  of  Presbyterianism. 

"  Hearing  these  reports  in  1794,  we,  by  letter,  '  earnestly 
requested  your  attendance  at  this  meeting.'  We  are  sorry 
that  you  have  not  responded.  Our  members  from  the 
Southern  States  come  greater  distances  and  at  greater  cost. 
Your  inconvenience  cannot  excuse  your  constant  neglect 


300  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

of  our  Synodical  meetings.  You  could  not  but  know, 
that  the  use  of  Watts'  imitations  in  the  worship  of  God, 
has  always  met  with  our  disapi)rol)ation.  Your  con- 
sistency, while  you  professed  a  connection  with  us,  should 
have  i)revented  tliis  innovation,  es})eciall3^  in  vicAV  of  our 
Judicial  Tcdimony  as  a  Synod.  Feeling  for  you,  as  mem- 
bers of  the  same  body,  and  anxious,  in  the  Spirit  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  reclaim  to  the  path  of  duty  those 
whom  we  deem  to  liave  gone  astray ;  the  Synod  have  ap- 
pointed and  authorized  a  committee  to  visit  you  before 
their  next  meeting,  who  are  to  inquire  into  the  premises 
and  other  matters  of  grievance,  if  any  such  exist,  and  deal 
with  you  as  the  circumstances  of  the  case  may  demand. 
We  hope  you  are  not  insensible  of  the  obligation  of  your 
ordination  vows,  when  you  solemnly  engaged  to  be  subor- 
dinate to  the  Synod.  Our  principles  are  now  precisely 
the  same  they  were  at  that  time.  Suffer  us  then,  in  the 
spirit  and  words  of  the  apostle,  to  beseech  j^ou,  by  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  ye  all  speak  the  same 
thing,' that  there  be  no  divisions  among  us,  but  that  we  be 
perfectly  joined  together  in  the  same  mind  and  in  the 
same  judgment.  "John  Dunlap,  Moderator. 

"  Alex.  Dobbin,  Clerk." 

New  York,  May  30th,  1796.  Messrs.  Annan  and  Mason, 
the  committee  appointed  to  visit  our  brethren  in  New 
England,  reported,  "That  several  unexpected  dispensa- 
tions of  Divine  Providence  had  rendered  the  fulfilment  of 
it  impossible.  Reasons  sustained."  "  June  7th,  appointed 
the  Rev.  Messrs.  Annan  and  JMason,  w^ith  Ruling  Elders 
Ebenezer  Clarke  and  James  Stephenson,  in  view  of  the 
situation  of  that  Presbytery,  to  visit  our  brethren  in  New 
England." 

The  "  situation "  of  that  Presbytery  was,  in  answer 
stated  (by  the  Rev.  William  Morrison),  thus,  on  August 
26th,  1796 :  "  Distance  renders  personal  interview's  with 
our  Southern  brethren  very  inconvenient;  we  have  ten 
settled  ministers ;  we  consider  ourselves  competent  as  a 
judiciary ;  we  are  best  acquainted  with  the  customs,  tem- 
per and  manners  of  our  churches  and  their  situation  with 
respect  to  other  denominations ;  we  have  voted  to  reply  to 
the  act  of  Synod  respecting  Psalmody  as  injurious  to  the 
cause  of  Presbytery  in  New  England. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  301 

"Your  committee  stating  your  terms  would  gratify  a 
few  and  mortally  wound  others.  Common  observation 
and  experience  concur  with  revelation  in  teaching  us  the 
necessity  of  governing  a  people  in  a  manner  best  adapted 
to  their  circumstances,  for  their  good  and  for  the  honor  of 
religion.  America  should  have  the  most  generous  and 
benevolent  system  of  religion." 

Here  the  appeal  is  not  "to  the  law  and  to  the  testi- 
mon,"  to  the  authority  of  God,  but  to  what  was  adapted  to 
America,  to  the  customs,  temper  and  manners  of  their 
churches  and  of  those  around  them  in  New  England. 

The  Synod  met  in  Philadelphia  on  May  29th,  1797. 
On  the  31st  that  committee  reported.  The  difficulties  of 
going  to  New  England  appeared  not  a  little  similar  to  the 
return  of  "  the  Eagle's  Wing  "  from  mid-ocean.  The  com- 
mittee say  "  That  owing  to  an  evident  interposition  of 
Providence,  the  appointment  was  unfulfilled,"  and  in  this 
the  Synod  acquiesced.  It  would  only  have  been  labor  in 
vain  ;  for  pure  worship  and  official  vows,  if  not  gound 
doctrine  had  (by  that  date)  been  virtually  swept  away  by 
the  flood  of  pine-board  (pew)  patronage.  Annan,  sus- 
tained by  the  majestic  presence,  fervent  piety  and  match- 
less eloquence  of  Mason,  would  have  found  the  changes 
introduced  by  the  permeating  influences  of  the  "  social 
compact"  in  eleven  years,  to  have  made  these  congrega- 
tions, to  the  voice  of  truth,  the  presence  of  princijjle  and 
allegiance  to  vows,  "  as  deaf  as  the  adder." 

They  had,  "August  26th,  1796,  ten  settled  ministers — 
Eev.  Messrs.  Moore,  Ewers,  David  Annan,  Taggart,  Oliver, 
Dana,  Toombs,  Brewer,  Pidgeon  and  Morrison."  They 
had  increased  from  three  or  four  to  ten.     (Morrison.) 

"A  new  king,  who  knew  not  Joseph,"  was  now,  through 
the  rapidly  diffusive  stimulant  of  the  imitations  in  the 
churches  in  New  England,  enthroned  in  the  affections  of 
the  descendants  of  these  "persecuted  Irish  brethren," 
who  had  lifted  up  their  sweet  psalms  to  Jehovah  on  the 
banks  of  "Westrunning  Brook,"  or  had  made  the  sands 
on  the  beach  of  Casco  Bay,  their  "  place  of  habitation  for 
the  mighty  God  of  Jacob,"  not  only  by  "  effectual  fervent 
prayer,"  but  by  presenting  to  him' the  emotions  of  their 
souls,  as  they  were  about  to  enter  the  "wilderness"  in  that 
most  plaintive  of  all  songs,  the  137th  Psalm. 


302  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

All  this  the  sequel  will  verify.  "A  letter,  stating  their 
views  and  grounds  of  complaint,"  in  the  massive  thoughts 
of  Mason,  was  written  as  an  evidence  of  the  faitliful- 
ness  of  the  court  to  their  trust,  portions  of  which  I  pre- 
sent. 

After  referring  to  "  reports  of  abuses,"  alread}^  noticed, 
the  efforts  of  ap})ointcd  committees  to  visit  them  for 
conference,  their  own  motives,  tlie  unforeseen  "  difficulties 
interposed,"  and  their  personal  disappointment,  they 
say: 

"  We  have  done  what  alone  remained  in  our  power,  and 
represent  concisely  in  writing,  with  all  brotherly  affection, 
yet  witii  the  most  undisguised  plainness,  a  few  of  those 
subjects  of  compkiint,  on  which  we  should  have  remon- 
strated more  largely  face  to  face. 

"  You  cannot  be  ignorant,  brethren,  that  your  discarding 
from  public  worship  the  Psalms  indited  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  substituting  in  their  room  the  composures  of 
men,  is  highly  displeasing  to  the  Synod  and  to  the  body 
of  Christians  under  their  inspection.  Whether  the  use  of 
such  composures  in  the  public  worship  of  God  be  in  itself 
lawful  or  unlawful,  is  a  question  we  do  not  mean  to  discuss, 
because  it  is  a  question  with  which,  at  present,  we  have 
nothing  to  do.  But,  whether  considering  your  relation  to 
the  Synod,  the  edification  of  the  church  of  which  you  are 
a  branch,  and  your  obligations  to  support  the  truth  of  the 
gospel,  the  use  of  them  was  allowable  in  you,  is  a  question 
wliich  demands  your  solemn  regard.  You  certainly  know, 
brethren,  that  the  controversy  about  psalmody  was  warmly 
agitated  both  at  and  before  the  formation  of  your  connec- 
tion with  the  Sj'nod. 

"  You  know,  too,  that  they  were  decidedly  and  zealously 
opposed  to  these  innovations  in  the  praises  of  the  church, 
which  have  since  become  fashionable ;  and  you  know,  also, 
that^  under  the  impression — unaccompanied  with  a  single 
doubt — that  you  were  perfectly  joined  in  one  mind  with 
them,  were  the  vows  of  God  laid  upon  you. 

"  How,  then,  does  your  departure  in  so  material  a  point 
from  the  testimony  of  the  body  to  which  you  belong — from 
the  principles  which,  in  one  of  the  most  serious  moments 
of  your  lives,  you  unequivocally  espoused,  and  adherence 
to   which    is   notoriously    implicated   in   the   fellowship 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  303 

you  as  yet  own — how  does  it  comport  with  your  duty  ? 
How  with  simpUcity  and  godly  sincerity?  And  since, 
as  there  is  reason  to  beheve,  your  firmness  miglit  have 
prevented  the  evil,  how  does  your  yielding  at  the  ex- 
pense of  3'our  professed  convictions  consist  with  the  obli- 
gation to  obey  God  rather  than  man,  and  with  your  engage- 
ments not  to  follow  any  devisive  courses  by  compl3dng 
with  the  defections  of  the  times  ?  Finally,  as  this  step,  so 
important  in  its  nature  and  extensive  in  its  consequences, 
was  taken  without  endeavoring  to  obtain  the  consent  of 
Synod,  without  asking  their  advice,  without  so  much  as 
acquainting  them  Avith  those  circumstances  which  are 
thought  to  plead  in  its  favor:  how  is  it  reconcilable  with 
a  decent  deference  to  that  judicatory  to  wliich  you  have 
deliberately  promised  subjection  in  the  Lord? 

"  But  apart  Irom  this,  your  proceedings,  brethren,  have 
greatly  marred  general  edification.  We  are  all  members 
one  of  another ;  and  there  is  no  maxim  in  Christian  pru- 
dentials more  sound  and  useful  than  this — that  in  matters 
of  liberty,  the  edification  of  the  whole  must  be  preferred 
to  the  predilections  of  a  part. 

"  You  will  not  pretend  that  you  were  bound  in  conscience 
to  throw  away  the  Psalms  of  the  book  of  God.  It  was, 
then,  at  best  a  question  of  expediency,  and  we  cannot  but 
lament  that  in  determining  it  no  regard  has  been  paid  to 
the  desires,  to  the  feelings,  to  the  conscience  of  by  far  the 
most  of  your  brethren. 

"Was  this  conduct  tender?  Was  it  Christian?  Its 
effects  have  been  deplorable.  Many  who  love  '  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus'  are  alarmed,  lest  what  has  hitherto  hap- 
pened is  but  a  prelude  to  deviations  more  unscriptural  and 
fatal.  The  Synod  on  your  account  have  lain  under  odium, 
not  only  from  those  who  lie  in  Avait  for  their  halting,  but 
even  from  a  number  of  their  own  people.  Confidence  in 
their  integrity  and  in  their  faithfulness  is,  of  course,  dimin- 
ished, and  the  good  cause  of  God  and  his  truth  in  their 
hands  proportionably  suffers.  They  have  already  preju- 
dices enough  to  combat ;  and  it  was  not  kind  to  strengthen 
these  prejudices  by  furnishing  even  the  candid  with 
ground  of  real  objection. 

"  Furthermore,  we  beseech  you,  brethren,  to  reflect,  that 
the  principles,  on  which  the  plan  you  have  adopted  is  too 


304  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTEEIANISM 

commonly  defended,  renders  j^our  adoption  of  it  peculiarly 
unhappy. 

"  It  is  justly  deemed  an  essential  doctrine  of  Christianity, 
that  believers  in  every  age  and  under  every  dispensation 
have  one  faith;  that  whether  the  revelation  of  the  way  of 
life  be  more  complete  or  partial,  more  clear  or  obscure, 
they  obtain  pardon  of  sin.  enjoy  access  to  a  reconciled 
(lod,  and  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  glory,  through  faith  in 
'  the  blood  of  sprinkling.'  But  by  many  whose  numbers 
continually  increase,  that  glorious  trutli  is  presumptuously 
denied — denied  for  the  express  purj)ose  of  exploding  as 
unfit  for  Christian  worship  the  Psalms,  which  Jesus  liatn 
bequeathed  unto  liis  church.  As  this  notion  is  becoming 
prevalent,  it  is  the  duty  of  all  who  would  '  earnestly  con- 
tend for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,'  to  set  their 
faces  like  flints  against  its  progress;  and  it  is  with  infinite 
regret  that  the  Synod  see  so  important  a  part  of  their  body 
falling  into  the  course  which  it  is  propagated  to  promote, 
and  thus  sanctioning  an  error  which,  in  their  judgment, 
stands  in  open  contradiction  to  the  experience  of  Christians, 
is  fundamentally  subversive  of  the  doctrine  of  redemption, 
and  gives  tlie  lie  tUrect  to  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God. 

"  But  beside  this  innovation  itself,  the  manner,  brethren, 
in  which  it  was  effected  is  another  cause  of  serious  dis- 
satisfaction. 

"  If  the  Synod  are  rightly  informed,  the  Psalms  of  the 
Bible  were  laid  aside  and  their  substitute  introduced  by 
the  vote  of  a  town  meeting.  You  are  no  less  sensible  than 
ourselves  that  this  was  not  only  prostrating  at  the  feet  of 
the  multitude  the  Scriptural  authority  of  judicatories,  but 
what  is  yet  worse,  was  allowing  a  civil  corporation  to 
meddle  with  the  interior  and  spiritual  arrangements  of  the 
church. 

"The  evil  and  offence  are  aggravated  by  the  little  resist- 
ance which  even  the  ministers  of  the  word  made  to  a 
measure  not  less  dangerous  as  a  precedent  than  corrupt  in 
its  principle.  It  rests  with  your  consciences,  brethren,  to 
vindicate  your  conniving  at  an  open  sacrifice  of  the  church 
order,  which  you  have  professed,  and  still  do  profess,  to  re- 
ceive as  the  institution  of  your  blaster  in  heaven ;  and  at 
violence  offered  by  a  political  body  to  his  glorious  Head- 
ship— of  which,  as  far  as  your  officialagency  is  concerned, 


IN   NEW  ENGLAND.  805 

you  have  sworn  to  be  the  guardians — connived  at  them 
without  one  manful  struggle,  and  especially  when  the 
probability  is  that  your  judicial  interference,  prudently 
and  faithfully  directed,  would  have  preserved  both  the 
prerogative  of  your  Lord  from  invasion  and  his  appoint- 
ments from  insult. 

"  The  whole  of  our  expostulations,  brethren,  are  framed 
according  to  our  best  information.  If  in  anything  we 
wrong  you,  it  is  without  design.  But  should  this  be  the 
case,  the  fault  is  your  own,  and  our  very  mistake  would 
corroborate  exceedingly  the  last  reason  of  complaint  on 
which  we  shall  now  insist,  and  this  is,  your  habitual  re- 
missness in  attending  on  meetings  of  Synod. 

"  You  will  not  dispute  that,  humanly  speaking,  the 
respectability,  usefulness,  and  efficacy  of  Presbyterial 
government  depend  materially  on  the  regular  and  harmo- 
nious co-operation  of  its  judicatories,  and  that  its  move- 
ments are  impeded  and  its  system  disordered  in  propor- 
tion as  this  co-operation  is  frustrated. 

"  By  neglecting,  therefore,  the  meetings  of  Synod,  you 
have  not  only  foiled  in  your  own  duty,  but  have  embar- 
rassed them  in  doing  theirs.  Your  distance  from  the  cen- 
tral parts  of  the  country  may  indeed  exempt  from  constant 
attendance,  but  it  is  a  very  insufficient  apology  for  per- 
petual absence.  Our  Redeemer,  it  is  true,  will  have  mercy 
and  not  sacrifice ;  but  he  has  not  put  mercy  and  sacrifice 
at  eternal  war ;  and  it  is  but  a  discouraging  symptom,  if  his 
servants,  when  called  to  act  in  his  name  upon  the  largest 
scale  which  their  connections  permit,  ordinarily  prefer 
their  own  convenience  to  his  honor.  You  have  been  for 
some  time  so  numerous,  that  by  visiting  the  Synod  two  by 
two,  if  no  more,  you  might  make  it  a  very  easy,  as  it  ought 
to  be  a  very  pleasant,  task.  Others  of  your  brethren 
attend,  although  at  double  your  distance  and  through 
double  your  difficulties.  From  every  Presbytery  on  the 
continent  some  usually  come  up  to  Synod,  but  from  the 
Presbytery  of  New  England.  Inquiries  are  anxiously 
made,  and  not  a  single  member  nor  a  single  official  docu- 
ment appears  to  answer  them.  The  Synod  can  learn  the 
state  of  their  affiiirs  only  from  detached  fragments  of  in- 
telligence or  from  uncertain  rumors. 

^'  Nor  is  this  a  recent  complaint — it  is  of  years'  standing. 
20 


306  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

The  Synod  have  time  after  time  caused  their  requests  to  be 
communicated  to  the  Presbytery  in  writing,  and  their  re- 
quests have  been  passed  over  in  contumelious  silence. 

"They  have  been  treated  with  this  indignity,  even  when 
their  communications  specified  the  evil  reports  against  the 
Presbytery,  and  earnestly  solicited  thereon  direct,  candid, 
and  explicit  information.  We  leave  it  to  your  own  sense 
of  decorum,  not  to  say  of  rectitude,  whether  this  is  the 
carriage  which,  from  your  engagements,  they  have  a  right 
to  expect. 

"  Such,  brethren,  is  a  sketch  of  the  representation  we 
would  have  made  in  conference,  had  the  Lord  permitted. 
We  have  not  consciously  misstated  the  sentiments  of  our 
brethren  among  ministers  or  people ;  and  it  is  not  less  our 
duty  to  you,  than  to  ourselves,  to  them  and  to  our  com- 
mon Lord,  to  tell  you,  without  flattery  or  concealment,  the 
real  light  in  which  your  proceedings  are  viewed.  For  our 
own  parts,  we  will  rejoice  with  thanksgiving,  should  we 
have  mistaken  facts,  or  erred  in  opinion ;  and  our  joy  will 
be  full,  should  the  removal  of  all  just  grounds  of  uneasiness 
enable  us  to  '  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit,  in  the  bond  of 
peace,  striving  together  for  the  faith  of  the  gospel.' 

"  We  entreat,  therefore,  tliat,  on  mature  consideration  of 
this  letter,  a  copy  of  which  is  preserved  for  sy nodical  pe- 
rusal, the  Presbytery,  besides  sending  some  of  their  mem- 
bers, will  transmit,  in  writing,  to  the  Synod,  to  be  laid 
before  them  at  their  meeting  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  last 
Monday  in  May  next,  a  correct  account  of  their  worship, 
discipline,  communion  and  other  matters  relative  to  relig- 
ious concerns.  And  Ave  trust,  that  if  the  union  of  the 
church  is  dear  to  their  hearts — if  the  vows  of  subordina- 
tion are  esteemed  binding — if  the  authority  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  hath  any  commanding  influence — and  the 
edification  of  his  body  is  an  object  of  desire,  the  intreaty 
will  meet  with  prompt  and  pointed  compliance. 

"Now,  that  the  Lord  himself  may  direct  our  way  in  wis- 
dom and  in  righteousness,  revealing  to  us  the  path  of  duty 
and  giving  us  grace  to  walk  therein;  without  turning  aside, 
either  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left,  is  the  prayer  of  your 
brethren.  "  Robert  Annan, 

"  Jno.  M.  Mason. 

''January  24, 1797." 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  807 

This  prompted  a  reply,  written  by  the  moderator,  which 
was  received  in  Synod  on  May  30,  1797,  and  which  stated 
"  that  they  had  received  the  letter  at  too  late  a  date  to  be 
laid  before  Presbyter}^,  or  to  have  any  member  or  members 
attend  Synod ;  but  that  Presbytery  were  to  meet  in  a  short 
time,  when  the  letter  would  be  laid  before  them,  which  he 
was  solicitous  should  be  treated  with  due  respect,  and  that 
he  intends  to  come  to  the  next  meeting  of  Synod." 

On  June  11,  1798,  at  Philadelphia,  the  Synod  were  in- 
formed that  the  Rev.  William  Morrison  was  providentially 
prevented  from  being  present — and  as  they  had  not  suffi- 
cient evidence  of  the  true  position  of  affairs,  so  as  to  come 
to  a  final  decision,  the  case  was  deferred,  and  the  Rev. 
Robert  Annan  was  appointed  to  write  to  the  Presbytery. 
At  the  next  two  annual  meetings  no  representative  of  the 
Presbytery  appeared,  and  Mr.  Annan  reported  that,  to  his 
letter,  sent  to  the  Presbytery,  he  had  "  received  no  reply." 

The  letter  of  January  24,  1797,  galvanized  the  Presby- 
tery a  little,  and  at  their  meeting  in  Londonderry,  on  Sep- 
tember 6, 1797,  it  was  "  Voted,  That  Mr.  iNlorrison,  as  agent, 
should  attend  the  Synod  in  Philadelphia,  to  sec  whether 
it  would  be  beneficial  to  dissolve  the  connection  that  sub- 
sisted between  them  and  the  Presbyter}^  and  that  his  desk 
should  be  supjilied  for  four  Sabbaths  in  his  absence." 

This  api^ointment,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  "  providen- 
tially prevented  from"  fulfilling,  and  the  specific  character 
of  their  Presb3^terianism  was  now  very  extensively  changed. 
Only  Morrison  and  Taggart  appear  to  have  had  a  training 
as  Presb3^terians,  after  the  type  of  McGregor,  senior,  and 
Moorehead.  Some  of  the  other  members,  educated  amidst 
Congregational  surroundings  and  associations,  had  taken 
a  very  mild  form  of  Presbj^terianism ;  while  others,  who 
had  been  always  Congregationalists,  assumed  this  polity 
where  it  would  be  to  them  an  advantage  to  officiate  in  a 
Presbyterian  congregation.  The  forms  were  in  the  mean- 
time observed,  but  in  a  free  and  easy  way,  as  they  virtually 
ignored  the  advantage,  authority,  or  even  the  very  exist- 
ence of  a  Synod,  which  might  not  allow  them  to  introduce 
will-worship  into  the  house  of  God — by  a  vote  on  town 
meeting  day,  when  they  elected  in  the  same  manner  their 
pound-keepers,  fence-viewers  and  dog-killers  for  the  year. 
Beside  this,  although  the  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 


308  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Church  in  the  United  States  (formed  in  1789)  Jiad  never 
had  any  control  in  New  England,  yet,  in  the  changes 
which  it  had  borrowed  from  Congregationalism  in  refer- 
ence to  Watts'  imitations  and  liymns,  not  a  few  in  this 
Presbytery  had  a  growing  deliglit. 

From  1774,  when  Baldwin  was  smitten  with  the  "  felt 
want,"  which  has  now  for  a  century  been  the  "  harp  of  a 
thousand  strings,"  with  all  sectarian  poetical  innovators 
who  want  new  poems,  "  taste  "  and  "  culture  "  have  had 
an  increasing  ascendency  over  Divine  authority,  and  they 
became  a  power  in  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  of 
New  England.  Hence  she  was  now  coquetting  with  the 
larger  body,  and  on  Octol^er  9,  1799  (present,  seven  minis- 
ters and  six  elders)  "Voted,  To  obtain  and  peruse  the 
Confession  of  Faitli  of  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia of  May  IG,  1788,  and  to  prepare  our  minds  on  the 
propriety  of  adoijting  it  as  the  constitution  of  this  Presby- 
tery at  their  next  meeting." 

In  1799  Mr.  Annan  was  again  appointed  to  write  to  this 
Presbytery,  and  in  18U0  informed  tlie  Synod  that  he  had 
done  so,  and  had  received  no  reply.  No  member  ap- 
peared in  Synod  in  1801  from  it,  and  on  May  30th,  at 
Philadel[)liia,  we  find  on  the  records  of  Synod  this  minute: 
"After  serious  and  mature  deliberation,  the  following  reso- 
lution was  adopted : 

"  Whereas,  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry  has  for  sev- 
eral years  been  in  a  state  of  virtual  separation  from  this 
Synod,  entirely  neglecting  attendance  thereon  and  due 
subordination  thereto;  and,  Whereas,  the  repeated  at- 
tempts of  this  Synod  to  obtain  from  said  Presbytery  infor- 
mation of  its  condition  and  i:)rocedure  and  a  compliance 
with  the  order  of  Presbyterial  church  government,  as  main- 
tained by  the  Associate  Reformed  Church,  have  proved 
abortive;  therefore, 

^^ Resolved,  That  this  Synod  no  longer  consider  the  said 
Presbytery  of  Londonderry  as  in  their  connection,  and  do 
hereby  disclaim  all  responsibility  for  any  of  its  transt 
actions. 

"Ordered,  That  a  copy  of  said  resolution  be  transmitted 
to  the  Presbytery. 

"Alexander  Proudfit,  Moderator, 
"John  McJimsey,  Clerk." 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  809 

"  1802,  October  22d,  the  said  clerk  reported  that  he  had 
transmitted  to  the  moderator  of  the  Presbytery  of  London- 
derry the  resolution  of  Synod  concerning  them." 

Thus,  after  a  history  of  about  twenty  years,  we  see  the 
process  of  assimilation  to  their  surroundings  completing 
its  operation,  and  the  Presbj'terian  version  of  the  Psalms 
are  now,  after  expressing  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  the  hearts 
of  thousands  of  God's  people,  cast  (excepting  in  godly 
families)  "  to  the  moles  and  to  the  bats."  For  about  eighty 
years  these  songs  of  Jehovah  (Psalm  cxxxvii.  4)  instru- 
mentally  increased  the  faith  and  strengthened  the  hearts 
of  the  "persecuted  Irish  brethren  "  and  their  descendants; 
but  the  same  "imitations"  which  had  worm-eaten  the 
"Bay  State  version,"  and  punctured  it  to  death  in  the 
previous  generation,  and  also  increasingly  bleached  the 
truth  out  of  the  creeds  and  godliness  out  of  the  lives  of 
the  offspring  of  the  Puritans,  now  supplanted  the  "  hymns 
and  spiritual  songs  "  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost  in  both  ver- 
sions, from  the  St.  Croix  to  the  Connecticut. 

We  now  return  to  the  transactions  of  the  Presbytery, 
and  find  that  at  Londonderry,  on  September  6,  1797, 
^^Sedenmt,  Annan,  ]\Iorrison,  Toombs,  Dana,  Brown,  Oliver 
and  Pidgeon,  ministers,  with  seven  ruling  elders,  and  that 
Rev.  jMessrs.  Moor,  Whipple  and  Boddily  sat  as  corre- 
spondents." 

At  the  same  time  it  would  appear  that  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Boddily  must  have  been  a  member  of  Presbytery,  for  a 
part  of  the  minutes  reads  thus  :  The  "  report  of  the  com- 
mittee to  instal  Mr.  Boddily  was  considered,  and  the  act 
of  the  committee  declared  to  be  valid."  "Mr.  Walter 
Little,  a  candidate  for  licensure,  was  then  examined  and 
assigned  trials,"  and  at  Pelham,  on  May  17,  1798,  after  a 
satisfactory  examination,  he  was  licensed. 

An  item  at  Londonderry,  October  31,  1798,  is  not  easily 
understood :  "  Mr.  Boddily  petitioned  to  be  admitted  a 
member  of  Presbytery,  and  was  admitted."  He  was,  above 
a  year  before,  installed  in  the  Second  Church,  Newbury- 
port,  which  had  been  organized  by  Presbytery  in  October, 
1795.  "  The  Second  Church  and  parish  in  Newbury  re- 
quested to  be  received  into  Presbytery.  The  congregation 
was  received,  and  a  call  from  them  for  Mr.  Toombs  was 
presented  to  him ;  he  declared  his  acceptance  of  it,  and  his 


310  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

installation  was  appointed  to  take  place  on  November  28th, 
which,  notwithstanding  a  remonstrance,  was  then  and 
there  effected. 

At  their  meeting  at  Derry,  on  June  12,  1799,  a  request 
for  the  assistance  of  Rev.  Messrs.  Brown  and  Boddily  to 
ordain  a  Mr.  Slea  (a  Congregationalist)  at  Byfield,  was 
made,  "  which  Presbytery  does  not  grant." 

At  "  Newburyport,  October  9,  1799 — Read  a  letter  from 
the  committee  of  the  New  liampshire  convention  on  the 
necessity  of  sending  ministers  to  the  frontiers  of  that  State 
to  preach."  Rev.  Messrs.  Morrison  and  Dana  were  ap- 
pointed to  answer  it  and  report  to  Presbytery. 

At  this  meeting  it  was  ascertained  that  tlie  Rev.  David 
Annan  had  become  so  immoral  that  Presbytery  now  com- 
menced those  investigations  by  which  he  was  eventually 
deposed  from  the  ministry. 

At  Londonderry,  June  11,  1800,  sederunt,  eight  ministers 
and  eight  elders.  On  the  appointment  of  the  ordination 
of  Mr.  Little,  to  take  place  in  Antrim  in  September,  while 
this  Presbytery  would  not  grant  the  request  that  at  the 
ordination  of  Mr.  Slea  at  Byfield,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Brown 
and  Boddily  might  assist,  and  lend  their  fibre  of  apostolic 
succession — yet,  they  now  formally  request  the  Rev.  Messrs. 
"  Barnes  of  Hillsboro,  Bradford  of  Francestown,  and  Page 
of  Hancock  to  assist  at  his  ordination." 

The  light  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  now  dawned, 
the  consistency  of  the  previous  one  was  "  behind  the  age," 
Congregationalism  was  increasingly  in  the  ascendant,  and 
at  its  shrine  a  peace  offering  was  to  be  immolated. 
Whether  they  formed  a  part  "of  the  Presbytery  "  who  laid 
hands  on  him  or  not,  does  not  appear,  yet  the  record  of 
September  2,  1800,  reads  thus : 

"  Met  to  ordain  Mr.  Little.  When  called  to  deliver  his 
popular  sermon  he  said  that  he  had  daily  to  attend  fun- 
erals, sometimes  two  to  four  in  a  day,  to  visit  a  number  of 
sick  persons,  and  he  hoped  the  Presbytery  would  be  so 
kind  as  excuse  him  for  these  reasons.  Excused  accord- 
ingly.    Examined  him  and  ordained  him." 

At  "Londonderry,  June  9th,  1801,  the  Constitution  of 
the  General  Assembly  was  considered,  and  a  continued 
attention  to  it  was  recommended  to  the  churches  under 
their  care,  with  a  viev/  of  its  being  adopted  with  some  few 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  311 

exceptions,  at  the  first  meeting  of  Presbytery."  ''  Presby- 
terial  sermons  are  in  futm'e  to  be  the  subject  of  mutual 
private  criticism." 

On  June  9th,  1802,  Mr.  David  McGregor  was  licensed, 
and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Taggart  applied  for  a  certificate  of  min- 
isterial standing.  Trials  were  assigned  to  Mr.  Matthew 
Taylor.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Dana  was  directed  to  obtain  for 
sale  and  distribution  eighteen  copies  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  General  Assembly. 

Although  this  was  done,  yet  many  of  the  people  had 
read  in  an  old  book,  "  Meddle  not  with  them  that  are  given 
to  change,"  and  when,  on  October  13th,  they  met,  the 
record  runs  thus : 

"Will  the  Presbytery  now  adopt  the  General  Assembly's 
Constitution  in  toto  ?  It  was  negatived,  and  they  adopted 
it  in  substance  as  a  directory." 

They  were  still  unprepared  to  "explicitly  unite  with 
any  particular  Synod  and  with  the  Assembly  at  the  South- 
ward." On  June  8th,  1803,  they  considered  the  "  official 
documents  of  a  Rev.  Mr.  Giles,  and  on  a  requect  from  the 
Second  Church  in  Newbury  port,  they  voted  to  induct  him 
there  "  in  July.  When  the  time  came,  they  found  that  he 
*•  made  some  difference  on  the  subject  of  baptism  from 
Presbyterians,"  yet  "they  installed  him." 

On  July  19th  a  Rev.  j\Ir.  Colby,  it  was  appointed,  should 
be  installed  in  Chester,  but  when  the  day,  the  12th  of  Oc- 
tober, came,  a  Mr.  D.  Baker,  of  Pembroke,  tabled  a  com- 
plaint against  him.  Yet,  as  the  pastoral  relation  between 
him  and  that  town  had,  by  a  "result  of  council,"  been 
dissolved,  "Mr.  Baker's  complaint  and  that  of  Pembroke 
were  dismissed  as  disorderly,"  and  he  was  on  the  next 
day  installed  in  Chester. 

"  This  Presbytery  cannot  consistently  grant  the  Goff^s- 
town  request,  considered  as  a  Presbyterian  incorporation, 
because  in  that  capacity  they  had  united  with  the  Congre- 
gational incorporation  in  Goffstown,  in  the  call  and  settle- 
ment of  Mr.  Morrell  as  the  minister  of  both  incorporations." 
A  Mr.  Robert  Heath  Noyes  was  now  examined  and  taken 
under  the  care  of  Presbytery.  At  Londonderry,  on  June 
13th,  1804,  Bedford  presented  a  call  for  Mr.  David  Mc- 
Gregor. 

Relative  to  the  Presbyterians  in  "  PeterborOj  a  certificate 


312  HISTORY  OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

from  the  clerk  of  that  town  was  read,  and  they  were 
allowed  the  use  of  the  church  one  Sabbath  in  the  year  for 
communion  in  Presbyterian  form,"  yes,  positively  allowed 
to  use  their  father's  property  and  their  own,  as  Presbyte- 
rians, one  Sabbath  in  the  year.  But  this  was  not  all. 
Unwilling  as  the  Presbyterians  were  to  forego  the  use  of 
their  property,  their  elders  must  not  any  longer  "  distin- 
guish things  which  differ  "  in  relation  to  the  Lord's  table. 
For,  "  Presbytery  recommended  to  the  Peterboro  church 
to  admit  to  occasional  communion  all  regular  members  of 
Congregational  churches." 

This  not  only  shews,  that  "  the  things  which  (then)  re- 
mained were  ready  to  die,"  but  that  promiscuous  commu- 
nion had  not  been  hitherto  practised.  At  this  meeting  the 
Eev.  Andrew  Oliver  demitted  his  pastoral  charge  of  Pel- 
ham.  They  gave  to  him  a  certificate  of  good  standing, 
and  promised  him  a  hearing  tliere  again  in  October  follow- 
ing. At  Argyle,  N.  Y.,  on  October  15th,  1804,  he  informed 
the  Associate  Presbytery  of  Cambridge,  that  he  "  labored 
under  difficulties  in  his  mind  for  some  time  past,  respect- 
ing his  connection  with  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry, 
and  had  resolved  to  leave  them  and  join  the  Associate 
Synod  of  North  America.  After  hearing  him  fully  he  was 
admitted  and  assigned  places  in  Avhich  to  preach."  He 
returned  to  Pelham  in  November,  1804,  and  broke  his 
pledge  to  the  Associate  Presbytery. 

Consequently,  on  his  representation  and  petition  to 
Presbytery,  in  November,  1805,  they  wrote  to  him,  and 
charge  him  with  leaving  liis  religious  profession  irregularly, 
and  cite  him  to  appear  at  Argyle  on  a  day  specified,  in 
February,  1806.  At  that  date  he  did  not  attend,  and  they 
sent  him  a  summons  to  appear  at  their  next  meeting,  at 
Florida,  N.  Y.,  on  May  5th,  1806.  This  did  not  bring 
him ;  and  on  October  12th,  1807,  at  Florida,  they  agreed 
to  ask  the  advice  of  their  Synod  in  his  case. 

On  June  13th,  1804,  Alexander  Conkey  was  taken  under 
care  as  a  student  in  theology. 

The  town  of  Bedford  concurred  in  calling  Mr.  David 
McGregor,  and  he  was  ordained  and  installed  there  on 
September  6th,  1804.  To  aid  the  Presbytery,  though 
eight  ministers  and  ten  elders  were  present  when  the  ap- 
pointments were  made  in  June,  they  "  invited  Rev.  Messrs, 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  313 

Burnap  and  Barnard  to  be  at  Bedford  as  correspond- 
ents." 

At  Derry,  on  October  4th,  1804,  the  Rev.  Jonathan 
Brown  was  released  from  his  charge.  He  was  then  offici- 
ally reprehended  and  admonished  by  the  moderator.  On 
his  own  request,  the  Rev.  Walter  Little  was  then  released 
from  the  pastorate  of  Antrim,  N.  H.,  and  on  June  12th, 
1805,  he  was  dismissed  and  recommended  to  the  Associate 
Reformed,  Washington,  N.  Y.,  Presbytery. 

At  this  meeting  a  call  from  Windham  for  a  Mr.  Harris, 
of  Fitchburgh,  was  sustained  as  regular ;  and  on  October 
9th,  when  twelve  ministers  and  fifteen  ruling  elders  formed 
the  court,  he  was  examined,  ordained  and  installed  there. 

At  Newburyport,  on  December  4th,  1805,  "  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Oliver  stated,  that  he  had  joined  the  Associate  Presbytery 
of  Cambridge  i^rematurely,  as  they  would  not  give  him  a 
certificate  (for  no  other  reason,  but  because  he  had  sung 
Dr.  Watts'  psalms  and  hymns  in  public  worship),  and  he 
then  requested  readmission." 

He  was  b}^  no  means  the  only  man  under  vows  to  pre- 
sent to  God  "  a  pure  offering  "  in  praise,  'who  has  employed 
"the  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom  in  preference  to  the 
words  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth."  He  was  not  only 
readmitted  but  was  promised  to  receive,  Avhen  he  might 
ask  it,  "  a  new  certificate  to  any  of  the  General  Assembly 
Presbyteries."  The  Rev.  Mr.  Toombs,  at  this  date,  re- 
signed his  pastoral  charge. 

He  was  "  furnished  with  a  certificate  to  the  Presbytery 
of  Columbia,  N.  Y.,  or  any  other  one  belonging  to  the 
General  Assembly." 

At  New  Boston,  on  February  25th,  1806,  a  call  from  that 
congregation  for  Mr.  Ephraim  P.  Bradford  was  sustained, 
and  on  the  26th  he  was  examined,  ordained  and  there  in- 
stalled by  Presbytery. 

On  June  11th  Presbytery  met  at  Derry  West,  and  again 
at  Pelham,  on  September  3d,  when  papers  were  presented 
and  some  ordinary  business  was  done. 

At  Derry,  on  j\me  10th,  1807,  Mr.  McConlde  was  dis- 
missed in  good  standing,  while  "  Mr.  Pidgeon  was  pub- 
licl}^  and  solemnly  reprehended." 

They,  by  this  date,  had  ample  opportunity,  as  pastors 
and  congregations,  to  examine  the  standards  of  the  Gen- 


314  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

eral  Assembly,  and  their  minutes  state :  "Appointed  Rev. 
Messrs.  Morrison,  McGregor  and  Bradford,  to  represent 
this  Presbytery  in  Albany  Synod  next  October,  at  Coopers- 
town,  N.  Y." 

Not  heeding  the  Divine  injunction,  "lay  hands  sud- 
denly on  no  man,"  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Pidgeon,  his  con- 
duct produced  trouble.  He  was  accused  of  improprie- 
ties by  a  young  woman,  and  was  dismissed  on  July  15th, 
1807,  from  Hampton.  By  the  report  of  the  committee 
appointed  to  take  the  evidence  of  Jane  Clarkson,  of  New- 
buryport,  his  guilt  was  established,  and  at  Derry  West,  on 
June  8th,  1808,  the  Presbytery  suspended  him  from  the 
ministry.  On  September  28th,  on  the  strength  of  papers 
from  Minot,  in  Maine,  he  was  restored  "  to  private  church 
membership,  and  if  Minot«wish  him  to  preach,  he  may  do 
so  till  next  meeting."  "  The  moderator  was  appointed  to 
inform  the  town  of  Minot  of  the  residt  of  Presbytery  on 
this  subject."  Finally,  on  June  14th,  1809,  their  record 
states :  "  Restored  Mr.  Pidgeon  to  the  ministry  for  one 
year."  Joseph  was  not  his  patron  saint,  he  "  fell  into  re- 
proach," and  wounded  his  Saviour  "in  the  house  of  his 
friends." 

At  Derry  West,  October  14th,  1807,  a  call  from  Antrim 
for  Mr.  John  M.  Whiton  was  sustained,  and  on  September 
28th,  1808,  he  was  ordained  and  installed  in  that  town. 
At  their  meeting  on  the  14th  of  October,  1807,  a  letter 
from  Rev.  Dr.  John  Smith  was  received  "  on  the  union  of 
the  church  of  Hanover  with  the  Presbytery,"  from  which 
it  may  be  fairly  inferred,  that  (as  represented  above)  the 
Presbytery  of  Grafton  no  longer  existed.  Consequently, 
on  June  8th,  1808,  "  Granted  the  request  of  the  church  at 
Dartmouth  College  to  form  a  connection  with  this  Pres- 
bytery." 

At  this  date,  "  appointed  the  stated  meetings  to  be  in  ro- 
tation,  excepting  at  Coleraine  and  Dartmouth  College; 
there  they  will  be  specially  appointed." 

In  April,  1809,  Litchfield  w^as  received  into  the  Presby- 
tery. On  request  of  the  tow^n,  a  Mr.  Kennedy  was,  on  the 
12th,  ordained  and  installed  there. 

At  Bedford,  Presbytery  met  and  w^as  constituted,  when 
eight  ministers  and  eight  elders  formed  the  court,  on  June 
14th,  1809.     "  Presbytery  declare  the  people  of  Pelham  to 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  315 

be  inconstant,  and  dismiss  the  Rev.  Mr.  Brainard  from 
them,  to  take  place  on  the  14th  of  September  next,  if  they 
pay  up  his  full  salary  till  then  and  $250  in  addition.  If 
the}^  do  not  pay,  he  continues  there  till  next  meeting." 
June  15th,  "  Voted,  to  send  a  delegation  to  Albany  Synod, 
with  powers  to  negotiate  a  connection." 

At  New  Boston,  on  October  25th,  1809,  Presbytery  met. 
Sederunt^  Morrison,  Dana,  McGregore,  Harris,  Bradford, 
Whiton,  and  Kennedy,  ministers,  with  ruling  elders  Aiken, 
Barnes,  Craig,  Duncan,  Dinsmore,  and  McNeil ;  corre- 
spondents, Rev.  Messrs.  Chapin  and  Bradford,  of  Frances- 
town.  "  Mr.  Walker,  a  student,  preached  a  probationary 
discourse."  "  Read  a  vote  of  the  General  Association  of 
N.  H.,  and  appointed  the  Moderator  to  answer  it.  Ap- 
proved of  Mr,  Walker's  discourse,  and  licensed  him  to 
preach  the  gospel." 

October  26th,  1809,  attended  to  the  result  of  the  mission 
from  this  Presbytery  to  the  Synod  of  Albany.  Read  the 
report  of  the  committee  appointed  by  the  Synod  to  confer 
with  our  delegates.  Rev.  Daniel  Dana  was  appointed  our 
delegate  to  the  General  Assembly,  to  meet  at  Philadelphia 
in  May  next  (1810),  Rev.  Wm.  Morrison  to  be  his  alternate. 
Presbytery  to  supply  his  desk  four  days  during  his  ab- 
sence. 

"Appointed  the  next  meeting  to  be  in  Newbury  port,  on 
the  first  Wednesday  in  May  next,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kennedy 
to  open  it  with  a  sermon."  The  Rev.  Moses  Baldwin,  who 
was  installed  in  Palmer  on  June  17th,  1761,  was  dismissed 
June  19th,  1811,  and  then  the  church  became  a  Congrega- 
tional society. 

Here  end  the  existing  records  of  the  second  Presbytery 
of  Londonderry.  They  were  continued  subsequently  for 
sixty  years,  yet  at  that  time,  through  the  carelessness  of  a 
clerk,  they  were  allowed  to  perish.  Our  quotations  till 
date  are  taken  from  a  cojjy  of  the  volumes,  transcribed  by  and 
for  the  writer  in  1855. 

While  we  have  now,  in  the  absence  of  continuous  rec- 
ords for  thirty-six  years,  to  draw  from  incidental  sources 
in  relation  to  the  Presbyterianism  east  of  the  river  Con- 
necticut, yet  in  Vermont  we  still  find  records  of  the  psalm- 
singing  churches.  The  others,  whose  history  we  have  so 
far  chronicled,  became  so  extensively  permeated  with  the 


316  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

superincumbent  native  polity,  as  to  be  "  part  Jew  and  part 
Ashdod,"  especially  in  public  worship  and  the  matter  of 
Divine  praise.  By  abandoning  the  Psalms,  as  presented 
in  the  Bay  State  or  Presbyterian  versions,  for  the  Imita- 
tions and  religious  poems  of  Dr.  Watts,  domestic  worship 
lost  (almost  totally  throughout  New  England)  the  pleasant- 
ness of  "  shewing  forth  the  loving-kindness  of  God  in  the 
morning  and  of  declaring  his  faithfulness  every  night." 
The  scenes  of  West  Running  Brook  (by  the  descendants 
of  the  "oppressed  Irish  brethren")  became  decreasingly 
continued  for  half  a  century  in  their  families,  until  Thomp- 
son might  say, 

"  Come,  then,  expressive  silence,  muse  his  praise." 

The  majority  in  Federal  street  church  as  Congregation- 
alists  settled,  in  1787,  the  Rev.  Jeremy  Belknap,  D.  D. 
"  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society,  and  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  the  pro- 
motion of  its  objects  and  interests."  He  not  only  pub- 
lished works  on  history  and  biography,  but  also  compiled 
and  published,  in  1795,  a  volume  of  poetry,  which  in  some 
congregations  supplanted  the  Bay  State  version  of  the 
Psalms.  He  died  in  1798,  and  was  succeeded  on  July  10th, 
1799,  by  the  Rev.  John  S.  Popkin,  D.  D.  From  his  pas- 
toral charge  he  was  dismissed  on  November  28th,  1802. 

Sixteen  years  of  perversion  of  a  sacred  trust,  misrule 
and  no  rule,  produced  their  effects  on  the  people.  The 
church  estate  had  been  held  and  enjoyed  for  fifty-one 
years  by  a  trust  deed  of  a  charitable  use,  which,  in  the 
hands  of  the  lawful  owners,  the  Presljyterians,  had  proved 
to  be  operative  for  all  ecclesiastical  purposes.  But  now,  to 
the  occupants,  it  brought  trouble.  Like  savages  who,  when 
they  had  boarded  a  ship  and  overpowered  the  seamen, 
were  not  able  to  navigate  her,  so  it  was  with  these  depre- 
dators. While  Little  owned  the  house  he  could  collect  the 
pew-tax,  and  so,  by  virtue  of  his  deed  to  them,  could  the 
Presbyterians  easily,  while  they  were  in  possession  ;  but 
Rot  so  with  the  Congregationalists.  Persons  would  occupy 
seats  and  pay  as  they  pleased.  Hence,  less  pleasant  times 
came,  and  this  even  after  the  Rev.  Wm.  Ellery  Channing 
was,  on  June  1st,  1803,  ordained  their  pastor.  The  de- 
scendants of  "the  Scotch-Irish"  had  been,  under  their 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  317 

adopted  church  regimen,  since  1786,  permitted  to  dwell 
alone ;  but  from  this  date  others,  attracted  by  the  suaviter 
in  mo  do  and  oratory  of  the  young  preacher,  voluntarily 
associated  with  them,  until  ''  the  Presbyterian  meeting- 
house "  was  filled  with  Trinitarian  Congregationalists. 
Yet  neither  orator}^  nor  numbers  brought  abiding  peace. 

When  Ahab,  wicked  as  he  was,  desired  to  have  the  vine- 
yard of  Naboth  for  a  garden  of  herbs,  he  offered  him  an 
equivalent  in  money  or  in  land.  Not  so  here.  They  had 
entered  in  and  taken  possession,  while  the  trust  deed  was 
on  record,  and  the  heirs  of  John  Little  and  the  Presby- 
terian minority  (Mrs.  Captain  Wilson  and  others)  might 
at  any  time,  apparently,  invoke  the  equity  of  the  law. 
Consequenth%  as  "  they  experienced  inconvenience  in  the 
management  of  the  prudential  concerns  of  said  society, 
from  the  want  of  legal  authority  to  assess  and  collect" 
under  their  perversion  of  schism,  they  invoked  the  arm  of 
the  Legislature  to  sanction  their  perversion  of  the  trust. 

To  this  end  the  following  action  was  taken: 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  proprietors  of  the  meeting-house 
and  lot  in  Federal  street,  held  at  the  school-house  on  said 
lot,  on  ^londay  evening,  March  5th,  1804  "  (nine  months 
and  four  days  after  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Channing),  "being 
the  annual  meeting — voted,  that  the  standing  committee 
be  authorized  to  apply  to  the  General  Court  for  the  passing 
of  such  law  as  they  may  think  necessary  or  beneficial  to 
the  society." 

This  germ  they  incubated  for  above  fifteen  months. 
The  trust  deed  stood  out  in  bold  relief;  Little's  reserved 
"  pew  and  seat "  could  not  be  totally  eradicated  ;  the  seat 
of  Mrs.  Captain  Wilson,  which  had  been  forced  to  a  sale, 
was  not  too  far  off  to  whisper  to  its  owner,  so  that,  if  appli- 
cation were  made  for  a  Legislative  strangling  of  the  Pres- 
byterian rights,  a  remonstrance  might  possibly  be  made ; 
and  withal,  conscience  was  as  yet  extensively  a  power  in 
legislation — that  "oath"  which  is,  in  Christendom,  to  men 
"  for  confirmation  an  end  of  all  strife,"  had  not  yet  been 
substituted  by  the  fear  of  Charlestown  or  Sing  Sing.  In 
framing,  interpreting,  and  executing  law  in  Massachusetts, 
men  yet  swore  by  the  ever  living  God,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  one  God.  Hence,  to  ascertain  what  was 
"  necessary  or  beneficial  to  the  society,"  which  the  General 


818  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Court  might  grant,  could  not  be  determined  in  three 
months  by  said  committee,  aided  by  any  desired  amount 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  Suffolk  bar.  Spring  spread  out  her 
foliage,  the  dog-star  made  his  annual  visit,  autumn  pro- 
duced the  "sere  and  yellow  leaf,"  winter  returned  and 
assumed  his  domain  in  New  England — the  "  Proprietor's 
annual  meeting  "  recurred  ;  spring  with  her  precious  influ- 
ences again  bespread  the  land,  and  still  the  "  law  "  "  neces- 
sary or  beneficial  "  in  their  opinion  had  not  been  enacted. 
"  The  want  of  legal  authority  to  assess  and  collect "  became 
increasingly  a  realization  in  their  experience,  and  at  last, 
before  the  members  of  the  Legislature  from  the  rural  dis- 
tricts should  again  rusticate,  the  occupants  make  "  their 
courage  cheery,"  and  the  document  of  which  the  following 
is  an  attested  copy  was  placed  in  the  archives  of  the 
State ; 

"To  the  Honorable  the  Senate  and  the  Honorable  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts,  in  General  Court  assembled, 

"  Respectfully  represent : 

"  The  proprietors  of  the  meeting-house  and  lot  in  Fed- 
eral street,  in  Boston,  that  they  experience  inconvenience  in 
the  management  oj  the  fn'udential  concerns  of  said  Society  from 
the  ivant  of  legal  authority  to  assess  and  collect  the  sitms  neces- 
sary for  the  support  of  religious  worship  and  other  exigencies  of 
said  Society. 

"  They  therefore  pray  this  Honorable  Court,  that  the 
proprietors  of  pews  in  said  meeting-house  may  be  consti- 
tuted a  bod}^  politic  and  corporate,  by  the  name  of  the 
^Religious  Society  in  Federal  Street,  in  the  Town  of  Boston^ 
with  the  usual  powers  given  to  like  corporations  relative 
to  the  choice  of  necessary  officers  and  holding  of  meetings ; 
with  power  also  to  hold  in  that  capacity  the  meeting-house 
and  lot  aforesaid  with  the  ministerial  house  lately  erected 
on  said  lot  by  said  proprietors,  and  such  other  estate,  real 
or  personal,  as  ma}"  be  acquired  by  or  accrue  to  said  society 
and  be  by  them  appropriated  to  the  support  of  public  wor- 
ship and  the  maintenance  of  a  teacher  or  teachers  of  piety, 
religion  and  morality ;  and  that  said  society,  so  incorpo-» 
rated,  may  be  authorized  to  make  contracts  with  any 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  319 

teacher  or  teacners  of  the  descriiDtion  aforesaid  for  their 
support  and  maintenance,  to  make  any  permanent  or 
annual  grant  to  any  such  teacher  or  teachers  which  they 
may  judge  expedient,  and  to  lay  and  assess  such  taxes 
from  time  to  time  on  the  pews  in  said  meeting-house,  or 
any  other  meeting-house  that  may  be  erected  in  place  of 
the  present  house,  as  they  shall  find  necessary  for. the 
foregoing  purposes,  and  also  for  the  repairing  said  meeting- 
house and  their  ministerial  house  aforesaid,  and  for  dis- 
charging any  arrearages  arising  from  the  erecting  and  com- 
pleting said  ministerial  house,  and  for  the  other  necessary 
expenditures  of  said  society.  And  as  in  duty  bound  shall 
ever  pra}^,  etc.,  etc. 

"  Boston,  June  10th,  1805. 

"Jno.  Davis,  Thos.  Lamb,  )  pj,onnetor'q 

Fran.  Wright,    Russell  Sturgis,  [     Co '  m?ttee 
Simon  Elliot,      Thos.  Thompson,  )      ^ommiuee. 

"  Edward  Tuckerman,  Jr.,  Daniel  Dennison  Rogers, 
Henry  Hunter." 

"In  the  House  of  Representatives,  June  10th,  1805. 
Read  and  committed  to  the  Standing  Committee  of  Incor- 
poration of  Parishes,  etc.,  to  consider  and  report.  Sent  up 
for  concurrence.  "  Timothy  Bigelow,  Speaker. 

"In  Senate,  June  11th,  1805.     Read  and  concurred. 

"  H.  G.  Otis,  President. 
"Passed  June  loth,  1805." 

Probably  not  on  record  does  there  stand  a  more  furtive 
Legislative  enactment,  signed,  and  then  read  three  times 
on  the  10th,  three  times  on  the  11th,  and  the  moment  the 
five  days  (which  any  such  enactment  required  the  Gov- 
ernor to  pause  before  he  signed  any  bill)  are  passed,  it 
becomes  "such  law  as  they  think  necessary  or  beneficial" 
to  the  "  Proprietor's  committee." 

This,  probably,  was  the  last  Congregational  parish  formed 
in  Massachusetts,  and  now  Presbyterianism  in  the  town  of 
Boston  (like  "  John  Barleycorn  ")  under  "  solemn  oath," 
"  must  die,"  and  be  robbed  of  a  place  of  sepulture  on  its  own 
ground.  The  text  of  the  act  will  (D.  V.)  be  afterwards 
considered. 


320  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

As  a  Trinitarian  society,  the  occupants  flourished  in 
numbers  under  the  Rev.  Mr.  Channing.  From  a  compara- 
tively small  number  of  once  Irish-lookino;  Presbyterians, 
by  assimilating  extensively  their  surroundings,  they,  in  a 
few  years,  more  than  filled  the  ever-memorable  old  "  Fed- 
eral Street  Presbyterian  Church,"  the  ever-glorious  crown- 
ing spot,  the  birthplace  of  national  life  among  the  sister- 
hood of  States,  to  Massachusetts.  Channing  was  not  only 
installed  as  a  Trinitarian  preacher,  but  years  afterwards 
he  (then  believed  to  be  such)  baptized  a  grandchild  of  the 
Rev.  John  Moorehead  (the  Rev.  A.  W.  McClure,  D.  D., 
resident  in  1849  in  ^lalden,  Mass.)  when  said  McClure's 
parents,  in  common  with  many  (if  not  all)  others,  believed 
him  to  be  (and  enjoj'cd  his  ministry  as)  a  believer  in  the 
Divinity  of  God  the  Son.  The  departure  from  Presbyte- 
rianism  in  government  and  worship  soon  ])ecame  exten- 
sive, if  not  complete,  while  "the  doctrine  of  God  our 
Saviour,"  taught  by  Morehead,  was  more  leisurely  aban- 
doned.    But  all  were  sinking  together. 

"At  the  beginning  of  this  century  (says  Vermilye,  page 
36)  great  theological  differences  existed  in  Newburyport ; 
and  in  this  the  town  was  an  epitome  of  New  England. 
Controversy  was  rife  and  alienations  existed.  Scarcely 
any  two  churches  maintained  communion  with  each 
other,  and  of  six  ministers  of  near  denominational  com- 
plexion, scarce  two  agreed  in  theology."  In  times  past, 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  New  England  Primer  and  in  the 
use  of  the  common  matter  of  praise,  the  "  Bay  State  Psalm- 
book,"  they  had  to  some  extent  "maintained  the  unity  of 
the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace."  But  now  Hopkinsianism 
was  extensively  diffused,  while  it  with  Emmonism  and 
other  kindred  speculations  were  sapping  the  foundations 
of  the  once  Puritan  churches  ;  and  Dr.  Channing  (who  was 
brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  of  whose  church  his 
father  was  a  member)  became  progressively  unsound  in 
the  faith,  until  in  a  few  years  he,  with  all  the  ministers  of 
the  town,  excepting  possibly  Huntington,  of  the  Old  South, 
by  the  shifting  quicksands  of  Congregationalism,  always 
"  sufficiently  divine,"  opposed  "  the  faith  once  delivered  to 
the  saints,"  which  had,  as  held  by  the  Pilgrims  and  the 
Puritans,  made  New  England  very  extensively  "  a  praise 
in  the  earth." 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  321 

As  the  new  preacher  in  a  New  England  town  has  usu- 
ally a  charmed  character  as  "  the  coming  man,"  so  the 
prestige  of  the  Rev.  W.  E.  Channing  increased  seemingly 
with  a  geometrical  progression  in  the  wooden  "  Irish  Pres- 
byterian meeting-house,"  until  in  six  years  it  appeared  too 
rustic,  became  too  antiquated,  and  in  1809  a  brick  build- 
ing, capable  of  seating  718  persons,  was  erected  on  John 
Little's  lot,  in  which  new  house  his  "pew  or  seat,"  accord- 
ing to  the  deed  of  trust,  Avas  rebuilt  and  preserved.  In 
tiiis  point  "the  obligations  of  the  contract,"  made  seventy- 
four  years  before,  were  not  yet  "impaired,"  while,  by  the 
purchast3  of  818  square  feet  from  the  adjoining  lot,  making 
in  all,  with  the  Presbyterian  lot  of  13,664  feet,  14,482  square 
feet,  they  were  enabled  to  erect  a  "  ministerial  house,"  pre- 
latically  called  a  parsonage. 

Eclipsing  in  a  few  years  the  other  ministers  of  the  town, 
Huntington,  Lathrop,  Eckley,  Eliot,  West  and  Kirkland, 
in  "  prophesying  smooth  things,"  his  fame  became  exten- 
sive, as  he  ignored  eventually  the  divinity  of  God  the  Son, 
and  preached  "another  gospel,  which  was  not  another." 

The  tidal  "wave  of  Unitarianism  now  broke  over  much 
of  New  Enoland,  especially  in  Massachusetts,  and  many, 
who  were  "lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God," 
began  to  glory  in  the  morning  light  of  "  taste,"  culture 
and  "  advanced  thought "  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

Notwithstanding  his  increasing  popularity,  he  was  not  a 
perfect  exception  to  the  rule,  that  "  a  })rophet  is  not  with- 
out honor,  save  in  his  own  house,"  for  when  an  admirer 
would  (as  the  story  tells)  flatter  one  of  his  aunts  by  eulo- 
gizing him  to  her,  the  person  was  answered :  "  I  know  all 
that;  the  devil  never  emplo3'S  a  fool  to  do  his  business." 
"  How  forcible  are  right  words." 

Having  seen  the  Psalms  ignored  and  forsaken  east  of  the 
river  Connecticut,  we  now  trace  their  history  briefly  on  the 
Vermont  side.  I  use  the  word  Psalms  as  a  coefficient  of 
the  type  of  Presbyterianism  which  settled  Londonderry  in 
1719.  A  long,  fierce  controversy  existed  between  New 
York  and  New  Hampshire  as  to  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Green  mountain  region.  This  was  amicabh^  adjusted  in 
1790,  and  in  1791  Vermont  was  admitted  to  fellowship 
among  the  United  States.  Long  before  this,  however, 
Presbyterians  settled  in  Barnet  and  Ryegate.  In  1775 
21 


322  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Barnet  began  to  be  settled  by  emigrants  from  Scotland, 
"who  soon  composed  the  great  majority  of  the  inhabitants. 
The  Rev.  John  Witherspoon,  on  September  8th,  17G3,  be- 
came owner  by  charter  from  New  Hampshire  of  23,000 
acres  of  land  in  Vermont  on  the  Connecticut  river.  Com- 
panies were  formed.  Gen.  James  Whitelaw,  an  emigrant 
sent  out  as  their  agent,  purchased  in  1773  a  large  body  of 
land  for  the  "  Scots-American  Company,"  of  Renfrewshire, 
composed  of  140  families,  most  of  whom  were  farmers.  It 
happened  in  this  way.  Providentially  meeting  Whitelaw 
in  Philadelphia,  on  his  arrival,  May  24th,  1773,  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon said  that  if  he  (and  David  Allen)  could  not  suit 
themselves  better,  he  would  sell  to  tliem.  After  looking 
around  for  five  months,  they  bought  from  him.  This  pur- 
chase embraced  the  south  half  of  Ryegate.  It  was  obtained 
from  Dr.  Witherspoon  at  "three  shillings  York  money" 
per  acre.  Col.  Alexander  Harvey  was  another  emigrant 
from  Scotland,  sent  out  as  the  agent  of  "  The  Farmers' 
Company,  of  Perthshire  and  Sterlingshire,"  to  purchase 
land  for  them.  In  1774  he  purchased  7,000  acres  in  the 
southwest  part  of  Barnet,  the  price  being  fourteen  pence 
sterling  (about  twenty-five  cents)  an  acre.  The  emigrants 
from  Scotland  in  these  two  towns  were  distinguished  for 
religious  knowledge,  being  well  acquainted  with  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  They  daily  observed  the  y/orship  of  God  in 
their  families,  making  their  numerous  hill-tops  resonant 
with  *'  Dundee  and  plaintive  martyrs  "  in  the  use  of 

"Those  strains  tliat  once  did  sweet  in  Zion  glide." 

They  were  careful  to  bring  np  their  children  "in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord."  They  strictly 
sanctified  the  Sabbath  and  loved  the  house  of  God. 

Feeling  the  w^ant  of  the  ^oublic  ordinances  of  religion, 
they  made  strenuous  endeavors,  before  and  during  the 
revolutionary  war,  to  obtain  them,  and  after  repeated  ef- 
forts they  succeeded.  Before  the  war,  during  and  after  it, 
several  clergymen,  most  of  whom  W'ere  Presbyterians,  came 
and  preached  in  these  two  towns. 

Dr.  Witherspoon  visited  Barnet  and  Ryegate  two  or 
three  times,  and  preached  and  baptized  The  first  visit 
was  probably  in  1775,  and  in  1782  he  returned^  when  he 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  323 

rode  the  saddle  on  which  his  son  sat  at  the  battle  of  Ger- 
mantown,  and  which  bore  the  mark  of  the  ball  which 
killed  him.  As  these  emigrants  purchased  large  tracts  of 
land  in  the  county,  liad  flourishing  settlements  in  Barnet 
and  Ryegate,  and  were  distinguished  for  their  intelligence, 
integrity,  enterprise,  industry  and  patriotism,  as  well  as 
for  their  religious  character,  the  county  was  called  by  the 
ancient  Roman  name  of  Scotland — "  Caledonia."  Count}^ 
buildings,  a  court-house  and  jail,  were  erected  in  due  time, 
but  for  nearly  half  a  century  the  latter  of  these  especially 
did  little  else  than  protect  the  sheep  as  a  place  of  shade  on 
hot  summer  days.  As  they  ''  glorified  God  in  the  highest," 
so  they  "  on  earth  "  maintained  "  peace  and  good  will  to- 
ward men." 

Hence,  among  them  for  a  generation  or  two  crime  was 
but  little  known.  They  "  lived  quiet  and  peaceable  lives 
in  godliness  and  honesty."  In  1775  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Clark,  of  Salem,  N.  Y.,  j^rea'clied  in  these  towns,  and  re- 
turned two  or  three  times.  The  Rev.  Robert  Annan,  when 
pastor  in  Boston,  preached  to  them  in  1784  and  in  1785 — 
his  brother  David  also  in  1785.  The  Rev.  John  Houston, 
of  Bedford,  N.  H.,  visited  them  in  1785,  returned  in  1787, 
and  remained  a  year.  In  1780  the  town  of  Barnet  voted 
unanimously  "to  choose  the  Presbyterian  form  of  religious 
worship,  founded  upon  the  word  of  God,  as  expressed  in 
the  Confession  of  Faith,  Catechisms,  Larger  and  Shorter, 
with  the  form  of  Presbyterian  church  government  agreed 
upon  by  the  Assembly  of  divines  at  Westminster,  and 
practised  b}^  the  Church  of  Scotland." 

In  1787  the  town  and  church  of  Barnet  sent  a  joint  peti- 
tion to  the  Associate  Presbyterian  Synod  of  Scotland  for  a 
minister,  offering  to  pay  the  expense  of  his  passage  to  this 
countr}^  They  were  directed  to  apply  to  the  Associate 
Presbytery  of  Pennsylvania.  They  did  so,  and  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Beveridge  came  and  preached  in  1789,  and  re- 
turned in  1790.  The  Rev.  David  Goodwillie,  in  conse- 
quence of  an  application  to  the  same  Presbytery,  came  in 
the  autumn,  and  continued  his  ministrations  in  Barnet 
and  Ryegate  until  February,  1790,  in  which  year  he  was 
unanimously  called  to  be  their  j^astor,  Ryegate  receiving 
one-sixth  part  of  his  official  labors.  In  September,  1790, 
he  returned,  and  was  settled  as  the  minister  of  the  town 


324  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

of  Barnet  and  pastor  of  the  church.  In  1797  a  meeting- 
house frame  was  erected  at  Ryegate  Corner.  It  was  the 
first  in  the  town,  but  was  not  finished  till  1800.  We  see 
that  Ryegate  was  to  receive  only  one-sixth  of  the  labors 
of  the  pastor.  The  reason  appears  to  have  been  that  a 
new  element  of  Presbyterianism  had  been  introduced. 

The  Rev.  William  Gibson,  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian 
Church,  had  visited  them  and  become  a  candidate  for  the 
ministry  of  the  town  and  pastorate  of  the  church  ;  conse- 
quently, on  July  29th,  1799,  a  meeting  was  called  "to  see 
if  they  will  settle  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gil)son  as  their  town  min- 
ister— or  make  application  to  any  other  Presbytery  to 
furnish  them  with  one."'  "Adjourned  till  September  3d, 
then  till  December  3d,  1799,  when  tliey  voted — 33  ibr,  and 
13  against  it.  On  December  10th  the  committee  reported 
to  the  town  meeting  that  the  Rev.  William  Gibson  will 
settle  with  them."  There  were  then  in  Ryegate  68  polls,  5 
clocks,  96  scholars  in  their  two  schools,  and  the  town 
valuation  was  $6,710.85.  To  these  13,  out  of  46,  and  those 
whom  they  represented  the  Rev.  Mr.  Goodwillie  gave  the 
one-sixth  of  his  labor. 

In  common  with  all  frontier  towns,  these  pioneers  were 
not  only  at  times  alarmed  by  the  Indians,  but  their  lives 
and  substance  were  often  endangered  by  wolves  and 
bears,  which,  being  "  very  numerous,  were  not  so  easy  to 
subdue." 

Another  matter  may  be  here  noticed — the  endurance 
which  it  required  in  winter  to  attend  public  worship.  The 
modern  fair  weather  worshipper,  with  his  furs,  seated  on 
a  cushion  in  an  audience  chamber,  warmed  up  artificially 
to  65°  or  70°,  while  the  thermometer  may  be  near  zero 
without,  can  but  very  imperfectly  comprehend  what  was 
endured  by  the  Calvinists  of  New  England  (Congregation- 
alists  and  Presbyterians  alike)  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  To  show  this,  I  quote  from  a  sermon 
"  preached  in  Townsend,  Mass.,  on  October  16th,  1870,  by 
Rev.  G.  H.  Morss,  acting  Pastor."  "  The  only  meetings 
enjoyed  by  the  fathers  in  the  early  days  of  the  church 
were  the  two  services  of  the  Sabbath. 

"  The  public  services  were  enlivened  and  spiritualized 
by  the  singing  of  the  Psalms  of  David."  The  Bay  State 
version  was  reluctantly  exchanged  by  some  congregations 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  325 

only  after  the  Revolution.  It  was  used  in  Townsend 
church  till  1770.  The  intermission  between  service  was 
usually  spent  in  the  meeting-house,  or  in  some  of  the 
houses  near  by,  or  in  what  were  known  as  "  Sabba  day  " 
or  noon  houses.  In  these  they  enga<j;ed  in  private  discus- 
sions of  the  topics  of  the  morning's  discourse,  or  Scripture 
reading,  or  in  the  personal  reading  and  study  of  God's 
word. 

These  houses  consisted  of  four  rooms,  ten  or  twelve  feet 
square,  with  a  fire-place  in  each  room.  They  were  gen- 
erally built  at  the  expense  of  four  or  more  persons,  to  be 
occupied  only  on  the  Sabbath  by  their  families  or  such 
guests  as  they  invited  to  join  with  them.  Dry  fuel  was 
kept  ready  for  kindling  fire,  and  usually  a  barrel  of  cider 
for  each  family  was  placed  in  the  cellar. 

On  the  morning  of  the  Sabbath,  in  cold  weather,  the 
owner  of  each  room  deposited  in  his  saddle-bags  the  neces- 
sary refreshment  for  himself  and  family,  and  took  an  early 
start  for  the  sanctuary.  He  first  called  at  his  noon  house, 
built  a  fire,  deposited  his  luncheon,  warmed  himself  and 
family,  and  at  the  hour  they  were  all  ready  to  sally  forth 
and  to  shiver  in  the  cold  during  the  morning  service  in  the 
house  of  worship.  "At  noon  they  returned  to  their  noon 
house,  with  invited  friends,  where  a  warm  room  received 
them.  The  saddle-bags  were  now  brought  forth  and  their 
contents  discharged  on  the  table,  of  which  all  partook  a 
little."  Then  each  in  turn  drank  from  the  pitcher  or  mugs 
of  cider,  which  had  been  brought  from  the  cellar. 

This  service  being  performed  and  thanks  returned,  the 
remaining  time  was  spent  in  reading  notes  and  discussing 
the  morning  sermon,  a  chapter  from  the  Bible,  or  from 
some  other  book  of  a  religious  character;  not  unfrequently 
prayer  was  offered  before  retiring  to  the  sanctuary  for  the 
afternoon  worship.  At  the  close  of  the  services  of  the 
afternoon,  if  the  weather  was  severely  cold,  the  family  re- 
turned to  the  noon  house  to  warm  themselves  before  going 
home.  The  fires  were  then  extinguished,  the  saddle-bags 
gathered  up,  the  house  locked  and  all  returned  to  their 
home.  "  One  of  these  houses  still  remains  in  1870,  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Common  (in  Townsend,  Mass.),  owned 
and  occupied  by  Miss  Hannah  Seaver."  The  invention 
of  Dr.  Clarke  (stoves)^  p.  22,  Vol.  I.,  came  very  slowly  into 


326  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIAIfISM 

use.  In  Ryegate,  at  a  meeting  called  on  March  20th,  1812, 
the  third  item  of  business  was  "  to  see  if  the  proprietors 
will  agree  to  have  a  stove  put  up  in  the  meeting-house." 

The  conscientious  perseverance  of  such  persons,  in  order 
to  enjoy  their  gospel  privileges  in  Avinter^  we  can  hardly 
imitate  so  for  as  to  reasonably  appreciate.  They  "endured 
as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible,"  saying,  "Lord,  I  have 
loved  the  habitation  of  thy  house." 

Between  these  two  towns,  in  the  proportion  above 
named,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Goodwillie,  for  above  twenty  years, 
labored.  Both  congregations,  with  an  outgrowth  into  the 
town  of  Peacham,  adjoining  on  the  west,  up  till  the  end 
of  this  quarter  of  a  century  (in  1818),  continued  consistent 
with  their  vows.  And  notwithstanding  the  sterility  of  the 
soil,  the  ruggedness  of  the  surface  of  the  country  and  their 
long  winters,  as  a  people  they  prospered.  In  common 
with  the  usages  by  which  they  were  surrounded,  they 
*' voted,  March  9th,  1813,  that  the  select  men  deed  the 
seats  of  the  meeting-house  to  the  proprietors  thereof." 

Thus  this  Scotch"^"  people  dwelt  alone,"  engaged  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  promoting  education,  sustaining  the 
ordinances  of  religion  ;  sanctifying  the  Sabbath  ;  the  hills 
and  forests  not  unfrequently  resounding  (when  in  prox- 
imity to  "  the  dwellings  of  the  righteous  ")  as  the  morning 
and  evening  sacrifice  of  praise  ascended. 

While  the  remaining  exercises  of  family  worship,  viz., 
reading  the  Scriptures  and  prayer,  were  still  general 
throughout  New  England,  the  observer,  standing  on  the 
summit  of  Mount  Washington,  on  a  May  morning  or 
summer's  evening,  with  an  ear  capable  of  hearing  every 
human  intonation  within  the  bounds,  could  not,  it  is 
probable  (with  one  exception)  listen  to  "  the  voice  of  re- 
joicing and  salvation  in  the  tabernacles  of  the  righteous." 
The  exception  noticed  was  the  Bells  and  others  of  London- 
derry, who,  in  their  generation,  not  finding  the  "imita- 
tions "  suitable  for  promoting  the  glory  of  God  (at  least) 
in  family  worship,  and  viewing  them  as  too  vapid  for 
"godly  edifying,"  continued,  while  health  and  strength 
remained  with  them,  to  use,  in  their  households,  the 
Psalms  in  the  Presbyterian  version.*     Beyond  this,  from 

■^  In  an  observation  of  nearly  fifty  years,  I  have  found  but  about  twelve 
families,  who  sang  anything  to  God,  as  worshippers,  who  did  not  use  the 
Psalms. 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  327 

the  river  Connecticut  to  the  Bay  of  Fiindy,  "  expressive 
silence  "  reigned  in  human  habitations  at  the  end  of  this 
quarter  of  a  century  in  our  history  (in  1818). 

The  one  path  or  connecting  link,  ecclesiastically,  between 
the  former  Synod  of  New  England  and  the  no^f  Synod  of 
Albany  was  the  Londonderry  Presbytery.  Tliey  appear 
to  have  held  stated  semi-annual  meetings,  inculcated  gen- 
erally the  teaching  of  the  New  England  Primer,  supplied 
vacancies  with  settled  pastors,  and  to  have  maintained 
presbyterial  order,  if  not,  as  alone,  of  Divine  authority,  at 
least  as  the  best  expedient. 

On  October  9th,  1805,  they  ordained  and  installed  Mr. 
Samuel  Harris  in  Windham,  which  church  had  been  then 
vacant  for  twelve  years;  the  Rev.  Ephraim  Bradford  at 
New  Boston,  on  February  26th,  1806 ;  the  Rev.  John  M. 
Whiton,  on  September  28th,  1808,  at  Antrim. 

"In  Mansfield,  Tolland  county,  Conn.,  a  minority  of  the 
church,  together  with  the  bulk  of  the  congregation  under 
the  ministry  of  the  Rev.  John  Sherman  (1797  to  1805), 
went  over  with  him  to  Unitarianism. 

"A  majority  of  the  membership  of  the  church,  however, 
held  on  to  'the  faith,'  and  by  a  formal  vote  changed  their 
ecclesiastical  organization  to  the  Presbyterian  order,  upon 
the  ground  of  its  more  scriptural  character.  This  form  of 
government  continued  for  many  years.  The  last  ruling 
elders  were  ordained  in  1833.  Since  their  death  or  re- 
moval, committees  have  occupied  in  their  places,  although 
there  has  never  been  any  direct  vote  of  the  church  to 
return  to  Congregationalism."  (3/.  S.  Inf.  Eccl.  Hist.  Ct., 
pp.  260,  419.) 

"  To  Presbyterianism,  as  an  expedient,  the  second  church 
in  Cornwall,  Litchfield  county,  Conn.,  came  about  1790,  by 
members  seceding  from  the  first  church,  and  denominating 
themselves  'Strict  Congregationalists,  or  Separatists.'  The 
Rev.  John  Cornwall,  their  pastor,  was  a  member  of  the 
Presbytery  of  ]Morris  County,  N.  J.,  and  united  with  others 
in  1791  in  forming  the  Associated  Westchester  Presbytery. 
The  congregation  continued  its  relation  to  that  Presbytery 
until  the  year  1807,  when  its  differences  with  the  first 
church  Avere  composed,  and  it  was  dismissed  to  the  North 
Association  of  the  county."  {MS.  Records^  pp.  1,  7,  85  and 
131.)  "  This  church  is  now  prosperous."  {Eccl.  Hist.  Ct., 
p.  449.) 


828  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIAJl^ISM 

"  The  Presbyterian  congregations  which  have  been  formed 
more  recently  in  Connecticut  have  been  composed  largely 
of  persons  belonging  originally  to  Presbyterian  churches 
in  the  Middle  States,  or  have  come  across  the  sea.  Three 
of  these  have  ceased  to  exist,  and  a  fourth  has  joined 
another  ecclesiastical  body." 

In  1809  the  congregation  of  Litchfield  was  organized. 
The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Kennedy  was  settled  there  as  pastor 
on  April  12th,  and  in  1812  he  was  dismissed.  On  Septem- 
ber 28th,  1814,  the  Rev.  Gardner  Perry  was  ordained  and 
installed  in  Bradford.  On  October  18th,  1818,  the  Rev.  S. 
Taggart  was  dismissed  from  Coleraine.  He  had  been,  even 
while  pastor,  a  member  of  Congress  for  fourteen  years,  and 
annually  read  the  Bible  through  in  Washington. 

Among  the  "divers  and  strange  doctrines"  which  have 
captivated  individuals,  "  ever  learning  and  never  able  to 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,"  wearing  the  Presby- 
terian name,  are  the  reveries  of  p]mmanuel  Swedenborg. 
These  a  Mr.  Worcester  began  to  promulgate  in  Boston  in 
1818. 

After  fulfilling  a  faithful  ministry  in  the  west  parish  of 
Londonderry  for  thirty-five  years,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Morrison 
died,  on  March  9th,  1818,  at  the  age  of  seventy.  His  life 
was  consistent  and  his  death  triumphant.  The  Rev. 
Solomon  Moore  died  at  Ncav  Boston  on  May  28th,  1803. 

The  Rev.  Moses  Baldwin,  who,  as  far  back  as  1774,  was 
instrumental  in  introducing  the^  "Imitations"  into  the 
Boston  Presbytery,  had  continued  to  act  as  pastor  in 
Palmer  ever  since,  and  was  dismissed  from  that  town  on 
June  19th,  1811.  As  an  inevitable  consequence,  that  con- 
gregation became  forthwith  a  Congregational  "society," 
carrying  with  it  the  Presbyterian  church  property. 

In  1807,  we  find  some  traces  of  tlie  Grafton  Presbytery. 
On  October  29th,  a  committee  of  that  body  licensed  Mr. 
Edward  L.  Parker  to  preach  the  gosj>el.  liis  license  was 
signed  by  John  Wheelock,  John  Smith,  Roswell  ShurtlefF, 
President  and  professors  in  Dartmouth  College,  and  the 
Rev.  James  AYoodward,  of  Norwich. 

The  first  church  in  the  college  continued  to  be  a  con- 
stituent part  of  said  Presbytery  "until  181G;  but  tlie  spirit 
of  the  times  then  fully  overtook  it.  Congregationalism, 
abandoning   in   many  places   the   absolute   authority  of 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  ,  329 

Divine  revelation  for  metaphysical  tastes  and  human  opin- 
ion, now  with  increasing  vitality  controlled  ecclesiastical 
and  educational  matters  in  the  land.  It  must  now  control 
this  church  of  the  college.  This  was  for  a  time  resisted, 
and  brought  on  a  bitter  strife,  and,  in  1817,  those  who 
were  '•  given  to  change  "  were  successful  in  controlling  both 
the  church  and  the  college.  Henceforth  both  tlie  sub- 
stance and  the  honor  of  Presbyterianism  tliere  were  assim- 
ilated by  the  New  England  church  2)olity. 

Annuidly  the  spoliation  of  Presbyterian  church  prop- 
erty became  more  common.  Thus,  in  1809,  the  Congrega- 
tional dissentionists,  after  a  separation  of  twelve  years, 
became  "  united  to  the  Presbyterian  societ}",  and  by  an  act 
of  the  Legislature  were  incorporated  as  The  First  Farish  of 
Londonderry."  In  this  "coalescence"  a  union  occurred, 
and  a  suitable  incumbent  was  soon  found.  Mr.  Edward 
L.  Parker  was,  on  September  12th,  1810,  ordained,  not  by 
the  Presbytery,  but  by  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Abishai  Alden,  of 
Montville,  Conn. ;  Samuel  Worcester,  D.  D.,  of  Salem ; 
Rev.  Samuel  Woods,  D.  D.,  of  Boscawen;  the  Rev.  Wm. 
Morrison,  of  Londonderry ;  the  Rev.  Daniel  Dana,  D.  D., 
of  Newburyport ;  Rev.  Jas.  Miltimore,  of  Newbury ;  and 
the  Rev.  Jno.  Codman,  D.  D.,  of  Dorchester — a  kind  of 
half-way  arrangement,  not  under  the  S^^nod  of  Albany. 

Thus,  at  the  end  of  ninety-one  years,  the  old  mother 
church  of  "  the  oppressed  Irish  brethren  "  had  only  one 
life  annuity  of  the  name  Presbyterian,  of  her  five  acres  of 
land,  of  lier  parsonage,  burying  ground,  sacred  with  the 
dust  of  five  generations  of  pastors  and  people,  her  town 
hall,  her  nine  thousand  dollars  of  the  Pinkerton  fund,  her 
church  edifice,  and  now  she  was  deprived  of 

*'  Those  strains  that  once  did  sweet  in  Zion  glide." 

This  mother  of  churches  had  now  settled  her  last  nom- 
inal Presbyterian  pastor;  but  the  vital  momentum  pre- 
viously given  to  her  it  took  forty  years  to  counteract, 
before  she  could  be  shunted  off  on  the  gauge  of  Congrega- 
tionalism. 

In  this  quarter  of  a  centur}"  a  new  form  of  Congrega- 
tional opposition  to  Presbyterianism  in  New  England  was 
developed.  The  germ  had  been  budding  for  above  fifty 
years,  yet  "  up  to  the  year  1810,  no  party  espousing  Uni- 


330  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

tarianism  had  been  publicly  and  openly  formed,  but  now 
the  existence  and  prevalence  of  tliis  opinion  in  Boston 
could  not  be  much  longer  concealed.  Its  operations  were 
for  the  most  j^art  secret,  for  the  pulpit  was  silent  until 
1815,  when  a  full  and  unequivocal  development  was 
made."  (Buck.) 

A  low  state  of  religion  and  morals  existed,  especially  in 
Massachusetts,  from  1775  till  1799,  and  the  change  then 
was  only  from  bad  to  worse.  Preachers  began  to  doubt 
whether  there  was  any  Holy  Ghost,  or  that  God  the  Son 
existed ;  and  as  "  an  Athenian  democracy  was  from  the 
first  in  the  mould  of  their  civil  government,"  so,  in  1811, 
the  civil  law  gave  the  parish  full  power  to  counteract,  or 
rather  to  rule,  the  churcli.  Still,  the  church  was  enamoured 
with  her  polit_y,  even  when  she  saw  "  the  enemy  coming  in 
like  a  flood,"  and  was  for  her  life  forced  to  secede  from  the 
parish.  Thirteen  out  of  the  thirty-nine  churches  whose 
^  delegates,  in  1G48,  formed  the  Cambridge  platform  and 
declared  the  system  to  be  "  sufficiently  divine,"  about  this 
period  renounced  that  faith,  and  of  the  one  hundred  and 
sixty-four  Unitarian  societies  in  the  State,  ninety  of  them 
were  once  Trinitarian,  and  in  all  cases  took  with  them  the 
parish  property.  In  all  such  cases  our  courts  of  law  per- 
sist in  declaring  the  residuum,  when  the  Trinitarians 
secede,  to  be  the  original  church — a  declaration  which 
common  sense,  to  say  nothing  of  common  honesty,  persists 
in  denying. 

As  the  combination  exists  on  negations  of  the  super- 
natural in  Divine  revelation,  it  is  difficult  to  group  their 
sectarian  opinions;  but  in'the  fifty  years  succeeding  1810, 
they  profess  to  have  collected  the  "  principles  and  doc- 
trines "  of  their  association,  and  in  4th  series.  No.  17,  we 
have  these  set  forth.  Some  of  the  first,  such  as  "  the  right 
of  private  judgment,"  they  hold  in  common  with  Protestant 
Trinitarians.  In  "  doctrines  "  they  have  no  authoritative 
creed — these  "  must  be  gathered  from  their  leading  writers 
and  from  a  general  acquaintance  with  the  men  and  women 
of  the  body"  (p.  9).  "They  believe  in  the  existence  of 
God,  a  crecUor,  a  just  one,  v:ho  rules  the  world  by  kncs  as  a 
loving  and  tender  Father.  They  believe  with  Trinitarians 
m  his  unity,  and  as  to  man,  he  is  the  head  of  the  orderly  sys- 
tem of  organic  creations,  he  has  a  soul.     On  this  fact  they  are 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  331 

generally  agreed.  This  gives  a  dignity  to  him  which  is  a 
possibility  of  the  ivhole  human  race.  They  have  no  dogma 
about  the  first  human  pair,  or  the, first  creation  of  the  race — 
where  it  was,  in  Asia  or  America ;  when  it  was,  6,000  years 
ago  or  600,000  years  ago  ;  in  one  pair  or  one  hundred  pairs ; 
or  b}^  development  from  lower  races ;  yet  they  believe  that 
the  race  is  an  unity,  and  that  all  men  are  spiritually  chil- 
dren of  God. 

"  They  believe  also  in  the  actual  imperfection  of  men,  but 
not  in  any  transaction  between  God  and  man  in  the  matter 
of  salvation.  A  man  is  saved  in  the  spiritual  world  as  he 
is  in  the  natural  world — by  obedience  to  the  laws  of  his 
being."  "  Unitarians  believe,  too,  that  heathen  religions 
have  saving  qualities  as  well  as  the  Christian  religion — that 
the  Chinese  are  saved  from  sin  by  the  teachings  of  Confu- 
cius, and  the  Persians  by  the  teachings  of  Zoroaster;  yet 
the  broadest  and  most  spiritual  religion  is  that  which  holds 
the  name  of  Christ  (p.  IS).  Christ  saves  men  "  (say  they) 
*'  by  his  teaching,  example,  the  spirit  of  his  icork,  h\s  fortitiide 
in  suffering,  and  as  he  shows  the  life  of  a  Divine  many 
"Men  are  not  saved  by  his  miraculous  birth,  or  by  his 
miraculous  death,  or  by  anything  in  his  history  that  is 
apart  from  practical  adaptation  to  the  human  soul." 
"  They  are  saved  by  the  Christianity  which  has  got  into  the 
customs  of  society,  which  has  been  fixed  in  the  statutes  and 
laws,  which  has  entered  into  the  relations  of  life,  of  busi- 
ness, of  the  State,  or  of  the  church  "  (p.  19).  They  have 
also  "various  views  of  the  nature  and  being  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  such  as  his  being  different  by  constitution  from 
all  other  men,  with  no  human  father,  or  that  he  was  the 
son  of  Joseph,  or  that  he  lived  in  an  angelic  state  before 
he  was  born,  or  that  he  had  no  more  pre-existence  than 
any  other  man." 

"  Some  think  that  his  rising  from  the  dead  was  in  the 
flesh  in  which  he  died ;  others  think  it  was  a  spirit  which 
appeared  in  the  form  of  a  man ;  and  they  all  find  this  suffi- 
cient without  any  scheme  or  contrivance  by  which  God 
has  to  appease  his  own  wrath  in  the  slaughter  of  an  inno- 
cent person  for  the  sins  of  a  guilty  world."  "Unitarians 
have  no  doctrine  in  regard  to  rewards  and  punishments 
in  the  future  life  separate  from  their  general  doctrine  of 
law  2Jid  its  violations.    They  believe  that  the  spiritual 


332  HISTORY   OP   PRESBYTERIANISM 

penalty  of  sin  will  endure  as  long  as  the  sin  lasts  and  until 
it  has  wrought  its  due  and  needful  reformation,  yet  it  is 
the  Lord's  will  that  not  one  of  his  rational  creatures  should 
utterl}^  and  forever  perish." 

The  reader  may  thus  see  that  this  moonlight  of  Chris- 
tianity, these  "  cunningly  devised  fahles,"  must  strengthen 
the  other  Congregational  sects  as  against  Presbytcrianism 
in  New  England,  when  now  their  wealth  and  culture  ele- 
vate them  to  the  highest  plane  of  modern  sentimental 
civilization. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  833 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

1818-1843 — History  here  hard  to  write — Congregational  antagonism  re- 
inforced by  popery — Abbe  la  Poitre  Cheverus — Ursulines,  their  nun- 
nery— Sweden borgianism — Nathan  Parker,  J  as.  Melledge,  Rev.  Jas. 
Sabine — The  deacon  included — Union  Church — The  Londonderry  Pres- 
bytery— Church  Street  Ciiurch — Brazen  shields — But  little  commercial 
expansion  yet  in  Boston — A  pastoral  letter — A  more  powerful  sect — 
Mixed  up  with  them — Subdued — An  infatuation — Ciphers — Preserved 
in  standing — The  proprietors — Duty  plain — Episcopal — Advice — The 
too  common  apatliy — Ready  to  change — Naturally  drawn  to  his  bene- 
factors— "Took  orders" — Under  the  Synod  of  Albany — No  assistance 
afforded  to  the  proprietors — House  sold — Accessions — Presbytery  of 
Newburyport  formed — Six  churches — And  twelve  ministers — For  a 
season — Rev.  Styles  Ely  quoted — The  fruits  of  expediency — A  con- 
ventional agreement  in  1801 — Dig.,  p.  575 — A  substitute — This  breed 
— Protests — Honeycombed — This  plausible  scheme — With  increasing 
readiness — Dana — Williams — The  new  Presbytery  probably  most 
heterodox — "Plan  of  union" — Assembly  of  1837 — The  mother  Pres- 
bytery decided — The  new  one  dissolved — Barnet  and  Ryegate  stead- 
fast— Rev.  W^m.  Gibson — Rev.  Jas.  Milligan — Rev.  J.  M.  Beattie — 
Topsham — Craftsbury — A  division  on  the  elective  franchise — Effect 
felt  in  Ryegate — Rev.  D.  Goodwillie  in  Barnet — His  son  Thomas — 
Rev.  Thos.  Ferrier  in  Ryegate — Presbytery  of  Cambridge,  N.  Y. — 
Wm.  Pringle — Said  Presbytery  rent  by  faction  in  1840 — Rev.  James 
McArthur  settled — Associate  Presbytery  of  Vermont  constituted  in 
1840 — How  was  it  that  these  churches  prospered,  while  others  con- 
tinued merely  to  exist? — Answered — To  supply  vacancies  required 
much  toil — The  demand  was  met — Mrs.  Gray's  statement — John 
Pinkerton,  Esq.,  of  Londonderry,  wise  directions — His  tombstone  and 
its  contract — The  society  of  Derry  lower  village — Dr.  Morrison  suc- 
ceeded by  Dr.  Dana — Hayes — Adams — Town  meetings  opened  with 
prayer — Brainard  pastor — Londonderry  East,  by  enactment  in  1827, 
called  Derry — Rev.  E.  L.  Parker  there — His  forte — His  advantages — 
Efficiency  of  his  church — Youth  the  seed-time  of  life  with  him — For 
them  his  early  working  plans — His  other  forms  of  labor  comprehen- 
sive— First  temperance  and  Sabbath-school  in  the  State  led  by  him  in 
Derry — Mrs.  Agnes  Wilson's  refusal — The  contract  impaired — Her 
mortification — Four  occupants — She  witnessed  two  revolutions — 
Changes  in  Newburyport — Mr.  Milton  continued  "fencing" — He 
adopted  Murray's  course — Arminians,  etc.,  etc. — Potent,  though  now 
barbaric — Dr.  Proudfit — Efficiency  of  the  means  of  grace  under  him — 


334  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

A  four  days'  meeting  in  Milton's  church — Numbers  united — Reaction 
— Twenty-nine  asked  dismissions,  but  could  not  form  a  church — The 
meeting-house  razeed — The  crypt  of  Whitefield — His  arm-bone  pur- 
loined— A  whispering  gallery — Dr.  P.'s  last  communion  in  1832  — 
His  departure  unhappy — Many  candidates — Kevulutionists  hindered 
by  the  Presbyterian  civil  organization — One  or  two  calls — The  effer- 
vescence— Stearns  settled — Peace  and  good  success — Bedford  and  1). 
McGregor — Bedford  less  carried  away  with  winds  of  doctrine — Rev. 
Thos.  Savage  tliere  in  1820 — Quite  equal  to  others — Antrim — The 
Rev.  J.  M.  Whiton — Twelve  ruling  elders — A  successful  ministry — 
1827 — Windham — Harris — Calvin  Cutler — The  days  of  sorrow  in 
Peterboro — They  observed  the  Lord's  Supper  as  Presbyterians  once 
annually — In  1822  a  part  were  formed  into  a  Presbyterian  church — 
Peter  Holt — Mr.  Pine — Joshua  Barrett — Jas,  R.  French — In  twenty 
years  three  pastors — A  due  appreciation  necessary — Londonderry^ 
Four  calls  voted — Dr.  Dana — His  salary — First  dismissal  there  in 
nearly  a  century — Dana  soon  pastor  in  the  Second  Church  in  New- 
buryport — Its  history  noticed — Calls  not  unanimous  in  Londonderry— 
A.  A.  Hayes  ordained  by  three  ot"  each  kind — J.  R.  Adams  ordained 
by  four  and  three — The  office  of  ruling  elder  maintained,  with  the 
name — Common  sense — Rev.  Mr.  Adams — His  marriage  displeased 
Ills  people,  and  he  resigned  in  six  years — T.  G.  Brainard  pastor  in 
1840 — Presbyterian  ism  in  New  England  only  about  five  psalm-singing 
churches  and  about  ten  others — Congregationalism  now  at  ease — Epis- 
copalianism  and  Methodism  now  increasing*  and  Popery  had  now 
three  chapels  in  Boston. 

The  history  of  this  period  it  is  difficult  to  write.  The 
data  are  few  and  the  material  is  scanty,  as  the  records  of 
Londonderry  Presbj'tery  are  lost.  Not  only  so,  but  in  Bos- 
ton, where,  as  a  local  organization,  it  had  by  spoliation,  in 
1786,  ceased  to  exist,  it  now,  when  revived,  met  Congrega- 
tional antagonism  reinforced  by  Popery.  The  mass,  beads, 
organs,  candles,  chrism,  man-millinery,  holy  water,  and 
extreme  unction,  were  introduced  in  1788,  or  before,  and 
during  this  period  of  Unitarian  protoplasm  among  the 
Congregationalists,  Priest  Cheverus,  from  France,  had, 
after  1796,  made  an  increasingly  favorable  impression 
upon  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans.  His  predecessors 
had  bought  from  Mr.  Croswell's  Congregationalist  society 
the  French  Presbyterian  meeting-house  in  School  street, 
and  had  occupied  it  as  a  mass-house  for  years. 

As  converts  were  multiplied  and  numbers  increased,  so 
"  sisters"  were  "  led  about,"  at  least  to  "  guide  the  house" 
(1  Tim.  V.  14).  Accordingly,  in  June,  1820,  nuns  of  the 
Ursuline  order  were  planted  in  Boston  and  vicinity.    They 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  335 

brought  a  few  new  "  notions  "  in  the  line  of  instruction  for 
young  women  into  the  once  Puritpai  metropolis,  and  event- 
ually established  their  nunnery  at  Somerville,  Massachu- 
setts. 

There  they  grew,  and  in  1834  (says  D'Arcy  McGee), 
"  rumors  were  circulated  of  a  young  lady  being  immured 
in  a  dungeon  of  the  convent."  "  On  August  10th,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Beecher  preached  in  three  difterent  churches 
against  the  institution,"  and  "  on  Monday,  the  11th,  tar- 
barrels  were  lighted  near  the  house  by  a  group  of  incendi- 
aries, who  were  joined  by  a  tumultuous  crowd  from 
Charlestown  and  Boston."  "Ten  adults  and  sixty  female 
children  were  within,  and  the  female  who  had  been  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  excitement  was,  by  the  agitation 
of  the  night,  in  a  raving  delirium."  "After  the  first  attack 
the  assailants  paused  a  while,  and  the  governess  was  ena- 
bled to  secure  the  retreat  of  her  little  flock  and  sisters  into 
the  garden." 

Soon  after  1  a.  m.,  on  the  12th,  "  the  torch  was  applied 
to  the  convent,  the  bishop's  lodge,  to  the  farmhouse  for- 
merly occupied  as  the  convent,  and  to  the  extensive  barn, 
and  the  four  buildings  were  reduced  to  ashes."  These 
two  systems  of  church  polity — Prelacy  and  Congregation- 
alism— were  now  in  this  case  pitted  against  each  other. 
The  scene  was  unjustifiable,  criminal,  and  disgraceful  on 
the  part  of  the  invaders,  while  it  formed  a  feeble  echo  of 
the  demonstration  7:iiade  against  the  Presbyterians  in  Paris 
on  August  24th,  1572.     Plere  extremes  met. 

In  1818,  the  forces  opposing  Presbyterianism  in  Boston 
were  furnished  with  a  new  Congregationalist  recruit.  The 
banner  of  the  Swedish  baron — who,  under  the  name  of  a 
Lutheran,  taught  that  "  the  last  judgment  took  place  in  the 
spiritual  world  in  a.  d.  1757,  who  denied  the  doctrine  of 
the  atonement  of  Christ,  or  vicarious  sacrifice,  together 
with  justification  by  faith  alone,  the  resurrection  of  the 
material  body,  predestination,  etc.,  etc." — was  by  one  of 
his  followers — Mr.  Worcester — unfurled  in  that  town. 

We  now  revert  to  Presbyterianism.  For  many  years 
previous  to  the  war  of  1812^14,  a  Mr.  Nathan  Parker,  a 
native  of  Maiden,  Mass.,  did  business  in  Newfoundland, 
where  he  and  a  Mr.  James  Melledge,  a  native  of  Boston, 
together,  erected  a  house  of  worship  for  "the  first  Calvinist 


836  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

church  in   St.  Johns."     Returning  to   Massachusetts  in 

1818,  and  being  attached  to  the  Rev.  James  Sabine,  of  that 
town,  an  Independent  from  England,  he  persuaded  him  to 
relinquish  a  large  balance  of  overdue  salary  (said  to  be 
above  £300)  and  come  to  Boston  to  continue  to  be  his 
pastor. 

Mr.  Parker  at  this  time,  although  a  deacon  in  Park 
vStreet  Church,  thought  that  a  tliird  orthodox  (or  Trini- 
tarian Congregationalist)  society  was  required  in  the  town, 
and  to  the  erection  of  a  meeting-house  on  Essex  street  he 
contributed  thirty-three  thousand  dollars.     "  In  January, 

1819,  a  Congregational  church  was  gathered  in  Boylston 
Hall,  under  tlie  pastoral  care  of  Mr.  Sabine,  who  had  ar- 
rived in  the  previous  July,  and  the  house  was  dedicated 
in  December  following.  Here,  witliin  two  years,  the  power 
of  the  popular  church  polity  ])ecanie  increasingly  mani- 
fested. The  deacon  being  the  controlling  force,  having 
*' loved  the  nation  and  (virtually)  built  tlie  S3'nagogue"  (as 
it  was  said),  found  he  had  not  the  right  man  to  "  fill  the 
pews."  "  Difficulties  resulted  in  the  withdrawal  of  the 
pastor  with  the  church,  as  a  body,  to  Boylston  Hall."  "A 
minority"  of  pew-holders  (the  deacon  included)  "con- 
tinued to  worship  in  the  Essex  street  meeting-house,  the 
premises  being  chiefly  their  own  property." 

Mr.  Parker  was  left  extensivel^y  ''  alone  in  his  glorj^," 
while  the  church  were  too  poor,  as  yet,  to  build  another 
edifice  for  that  persuasion,  which  now  was  obviously  un- 
necessary in  the  city. 

On  March  28th,  1822,  the  deacons,  Parker  and  Melledge, 
with  three  other  male  and  five  female  members,  were,  on 
their  own  "request,  dismissed  from  the  church  in  Boylston 
Hall,"  and  on  June  10th,  with  one  from  Braintree,  three 
from  the  Old  South  and  nine  from  Park  Street,  beside  two 
from  Halifax,  Mass.,  they  were,  by  an  ecclesiastical  coun- 
cil, organized  as  the  Union  Church.  Sabine,  although  a 
moderate  Calvinist,  was  not  yet  acquainted  with  Presby- 
terianism.  Being  left  with  his  "  society  "  severely  alone, 
and  having  the  whole  continent  from  wdiich  to  choose  as- 
sociation, they  sought  fellowship  with  the  Londonderry 
Presbytery,  and  were  by  that  court  organized  as  a  church 
on  November  23d,  1823.  Thus,  after  a  period  of  thirty- 
seven  years,  this  church  polity  had  again  a  recognized  ex- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  337 

istence  in  Boston.  Not  a  little  friction  attended  their 
operations,  when  they  attempted  to  transmute  the  species, 
or  rather  produce  "  a  hreed."  Those  who  had  previously 
been  deacons  did  not  always  exactly  fill,  even  when  elected 
and  ordained,  the  office  of  ruling  elders.  Yet,  having  no 
sympathy  from  those  whom  they  had  left,  the}^  for  some 
years  worked  hard.  In  1825  the  congregation  obtained  an 
incorporation  ;  and,  encouraged  with  hope,  they,  on  a  lot 
which  had  been  deeded  to  them  as  Presbyterians  on  July 
29th,  1825,  on  July  4th,  1827,  laid  the  corner-stone  of  a 
church  edifice.  As  the  building  was  erected  on  a  new 
site,  then  only  partially  reclaimed  from  the  tide,  the  street 
was  called  Church  street.  To  buy  land,  erect  an  edifice 
and  support  ordinances,  imposed  on  them  a  heavy  bur- 
den, as  they  were  all  comparativeh^  poor. 

This  was  not  all;  they  were  one  in  name,  but  not  so  in 
race,  nor  in  early  Christian  education,  nor  perchance  in 
doctrine.  In  the  offering  of  praise,  they  conformed  to 
their  surroundings.  Hence,  when  worshippers  came  to 
them  from  British  Presbyterian  churches  and  found  only 
the  imitations,  instead  of  their  "  gnarled  "  version ;  in 
short,  finding  only  Congregational  usages  in  worship,  the 
brazen  shields  of  Rehoboam  instead  of  the  golden  ones  of 
Solomon,  while  more  brilliant  men  occupied  the  pulpits 
of  the  Old  South,  Park  Street  and  Essex  Street  meeting- 
houses, they  would  not  do  honor  to  the  mere  name. 
While  by  the  force  of  circumstances  Mr.  Sabine  and  his 
people  became  Presbyterians,  they  were  not  only  opposed 
by  the  orthodox,  but  at  least  partly  "chilled  off"  by  the 
Presbytery.  This  we  see  set  forth  not  only  in  his  "  Eccle- 
siastical Memoirs  of  Essex  Street  Religious  Society,"  but 
from  his  correspondence. 

On  March  18th,  1825,  he  wrote  to  the  Rev.  E.  L.  Parker: 
"  The  troubles  of  my  people  arose  from  their  former  con- 
nection. A  meeting  and  sifting  was  instituted  by  Presby- 
tery. Essex  Street  Church  (that  is,  his  own)  met  it,  and 
the}^  were  admitted  honorably.  They  then  expected  fel- 
lowship with  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  often  as  oppor- 
tunity might  occur,  but  this  is  not  the  case.  A  brother 
presbyter  told  me  next  day  that  he  did  all  in  his  power  to 
prevent  our  admission;  still,  he  said  our  admission  was 
orderly  and  complete.  We  are  led  to  suspect  that  there  is 
22 


338  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

something  out  of  order,  or  out  of  the  spirit  of  it.  Many  a 
ministering  brother  comes  and  goes,  and  though  we  are 
lying  wounded  and  bloody,  robbed  and  maimed,  as  left  by 
our  enemies,  they  pass  by  on  the  other  side.  Professor 
Hodge,  from  Princeton,  last  June,  while  I  was  from  home, 
was  appHed  to  by  our  session  for  a  sermon,  as  the  pulpit 
was  unsupplied.  He  objected,  and  finally  refused,  saying, 
that  our  'admission  to  Presbytery  was  not  to  him  quite 
clear.'  This  want  of  order,  if  it  be  so,  is  declared  at  length 
by  Synod,  and'  a  copy  given  to  me  last  October.  Our 
opposers  insinuate  that  we  will  be  rejected  and  cast  out 
before  long. 

"Do  you  know  anything  about  this?  You,  as  clerk,  can 
see  many  things  I  cannot.  All  I  want  of  you  is  to  tell 
me  all  you  know  of  this  matter,  not  officially,  but  as  a 
brother.  An  expose  of  this  deep-laid  plot  will  save  me, 
yourself  and  the  Presbytery  a  deal  of  trouble.  So  con- 
scious am  I  of  deserving  all  awarded  to  me  for  damage, 
service  and  sacrifice  in  the  result  of  Council,  in  1822,  that 
I  am  afraid  to  see  no  man,  and  am  willing  to  stand  at  any 
tribunal  of  the  Presbyterian  Church ;  but,  to  be  stabbed  in 
secret  and  privately  buried  as  a  malefactor,  I  have  no 
mind,  but  I  will,  if  I  can,  expose  their  agents. 

"  The  honor  and  spread  of  religion  are  deeply  interested 
in  the  exposure  of  such  men  as  Drs.  Codman  and  Woods. 
None  of  my  troubles  or  of  the  church  were  by  me,  or 
them,  entailed  on  the  Presbytery;  we  are  guiltless.  Yet  I 
trust  a  way  will  be  found  out  in  which  they  can  clear 
themselves.  You  may  shew  this  letter  to  our  moderator, 
if  you  pledge  me  that  no  advice  or  intimation  of  matter  in 
this  passes  over  the  limits  of  our  body.  To  this  I  hold 
you  pledged.  I  should  have  stated  above  that  Brother 
Williams,  of  Salem,  and  Brother  Parker,  of  Chester,  have 
exchanged  with  me,  but  there  ends,  thus  far,  all  inter- 
course with  the  Presbyterian  body.  The  distance  of  most 
of  the  churches  is  a  bar,  others  are  willing,  if  opportunity 
were  favorable,  but  the  pulpits  of  our  opposers  have  been 
decidedly  preferred  and  ours  totally  neglected. 

"  James  Sabine." 

This  statement  gives  to  us  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  case, 
and  upon  it  we  need  not  dwell.     There  was  as  yet  but 


IN   NEW    ENGLAND.  339 

little  of  commercial  expansion  in  Boston  to  attract  foreign 
Presbyterians,  and  to  obtain  an  increase  of  numbers  from 
their  surroundings,  amidst  intense  opposition,  was  exten- 
sively impossible. 

Under  their  trials  "the  love  of "  some  "waxed  cold," 
while  only  by  a  similar  crucial  test  can  the  worry  and 
"trembling  of  heart  for  the  ark  of  God,"  which  the  pastor 
experienced  for  years,  be  known,  for  "  the  heart  knoweth 
his  own  bitterness."  This,  for  even  a  few  years,  he  was 
unable  to  endure. 

Hence  "  a  pastoral  letter  was  addressed  to  the  congre- 
gation in  March,  1827,  stating  their  history  as  a  people 
gathered  out  of  the  wide  world  under  peculiar  circum- 
stances." But,  as  "no  notice,  either  good  or  bad,  had  been 
taken  of  it  for  two  years,  and  as  he  did  not  know  whether 
it  wrought  any  spiritual  benefit  to  them  or  otherwise,"  so, 
in  April,  1829,  he  again  "  stirs  up  their  (inactive,  if  not) 
pure  minds,  by  way  of  remembrance."  After  stating  that 
he  was  "crossed  and  disappointed,"  because  in  competition 
with  more  influential  sects,  in  providing  the  ordinances  of 
religion  for  the  increasing  population  of  our  city,  he  and 
they  had  been  unsuccessful,  until  he  was  "  overwhelmed 
with  despondency,"  he  says:  "The  ecclesiastical  de- 
nomination to  which  we  belong  is  so  subdued  by  another 
and  more  powerful  sect,  and  so  mixed  up  with  them,  that 
no  hope  remains  of  replenishing  our  Society  from  their 
numbers."  This  unfolds  exactly  the  relative  position  of 
Presbyterianism  east  of  the  Connecticut  river,  or  rather  in 
all  New  England,  from  generation  to  generation.  It  is 
"subdued  by  and  mixed  up  with"  Congregationalists. 

By  this  subduing  and  mixing,  "  the  truth,  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,"  invariably  "  gains  "  much  "  harm  and  loss,"  while, 
so  powerful  is  the  infatuation,  wherever  modern  charity 
prevails,  that  to  see  it,  requires  an  absolute  belief  in  plen- 
ary inspiration.  Mr.  Sabine  continues  :  "  He  expected,  as 
was  natural,  that  what  was  lacking  on  the  part  of  his  peo- 
ple, owing  to  the  smallness  of  their  numbers  and  the  de- 
pressed state  of  their  means,  would  be,  in  some  measure, 
supplied  by  the  sympathy  and  benevolence  of  abler 
churches  in  our  own  body,  or  their  rules  and  ordinances 
are  mere  cyphers,  only  calculated  to  make  up  an  appear- 
ance, where  the  reality  is  wanting.     Such  complicated 


&40 


HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 


trials,  so  long  borne,  have  at  length  prostrated  my  health 
and  reduced  me  to  a  state  of  depression  trul}^  afflictive, 
from  which  nothing  but  a  change  of  condition,  with  the 
blessing  of  God,  can  deliver  me."  He  then  states  that 
*' friendship  raised  up  in  a  circle  beyond  the  bounds  of  his 
own  society,  liad  preserved  him  and  his  people  in  stand- 
ing in  the  Christian  church,  and  had  enabled  them  to 
erect  their  place  of  worship." 

"  The  proprietors  of  the  house  are  pledged  to  the  dis- 
charge of  certain  obligations,  under  which  the  church  can- 
not be  brought,  and  in  which  case  the  church,  in  its 
present  form,  can  afford  them  no  assistance." 

The  proprietors  were  here  the  incorjoorated  pew-owners, 
over  which,  according  to  Congregational  civil  statute  law 
(under  which  they  were  incorporated),  the  then  existing 
Presbyterian  church  of  Boston  had  no  control.  The 
church,  that  is,  the  elders  and  members,  rulers  and  ruled, 
had  no  recognized  existence  in  civil  law,  by  which  they 
could  hold  and  enjoy  any  part  of  the  property  obtained. 
Hence,  "  the  proprietors  of  the  house  are  pledged  to  the 
discharge  of  certain  obligations,  under  which  the  church 
cannot  be  brought,"  and  in  which,  "as  a  properly  organ- 
ized Presbyterian  church,  it  can  afford  the  proprietors  no 
assistance."  If  the  reader  will  please  keep  this  recorded 
fact  in  memory,  he  can  clearly  see  what  has  signed  the 
death-warrant  for  Presbyterianism  in  Congregational  New 
England. 

"My  duty  then  is  plain,  and  that  is,  to  secure  the  entire 
apparatus  of  the  church  upon  a  foundation  that  will  pro- 
vide for  its  exigencies  temporal  and  spiritual.  Those  of 
you  who  can  go  into  these  measures,  cheerfully  and  with 
a  good  conscience,  will  be  able  to  exemplify  the  common 
jDrinciples  of  our  Christian  faith  apart  from  all  sectarian- 
ism. Others  of  you,  not  so  minded,  forbidden  by  a  ten- 
der conscience,  will  find  another  way,  and  no  damage  will 
be  sustained  by  either  party." 

His  letter  presents  the  too  common  apath}^  of  the  exotic, 
Presbyterianism,  and  its  almost  hopeless  struggle  with 
modern  Congregationalism  in  the  land  of  its  birth. 

As  Mr.  Sabine  was  trained  under  and  into  Independency, 
and  not  taking  Presbyterianism  "  in  the  natural  way,"  he 
was  "  ready  to  change."     His  aid  had  come  from  Episco- 


IN   NEW  ENGLAND.  341 

pal  friends,  while  Presbyterians  had,  like  the  priest  and 
the  Levite,  "passed  by  on  the  other  side."  As  "that 
which  is  natural  is  first,  and  afterward  that  which  is 
spiritual,"  so,  by  relieving  him  and  his,  when  in  distress 
and  want,  he  was  naturally  drawn,  ecclesiastically,  to  his 
benefactors.  Consequently,  Avithin  a  year  he  "took  or- 
ders "  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church,  and  it  is  said  a 
part  of  the  congregation  went  with  him. 

Thus  "  ended  the  first  lesson "  of  Presbyterianism  in 
Boston  under  the  Synod  of  Albany ;  and  thus  there, 
within  ninety  years,  were  three  churches  of  that  order 
blotted  out.  "  The  proprietors  of  the  house"  were  moored  to 
their  "  obligations,"  and  the  church  in  its  then  present 
form,  destitute  of  a  pastor,  was  in  no  position  to  afford 
them  assistance. 

They  had  forgotten  the  wise  counsel  of  John  Rodgers : 
"  Build  not  your  house  too  high."  Consequently,  for  a 
debt  of  some  $8,000  due  to  the  builders,  the  fine  brick 
edifice  of  "  The  First  Presbyterian  Society,  Boston,"  was, 
in  July,  1834,  sold  to  the  Methodists. 

About  1824  congregations  appear  to  have  been  multi- 
plied by  accessions  from  different  towns,  which  came  to 
Presbyterianism,  and,  in  1825,  out  of  the  Londonderry 
one,  the  Presbytery  of  Newbury  port  was  formed,  of  course 
by  the  authority  of  the  Synod  of  Albany.  In  1828  it  em- 
braced six  churclies  and  twelve  ministers,  including  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Sabine,  Church  Street  church,  and  one  in  Mill- 
bury,  Mass. 

Why  said  Presbytery  was  formed,  is  matter  of  conjec- 
ture. It  appears  to  have  received  as  its  "  form  of  sound 
words,"  the  Westminster  Catechism  onl}^  "  for  substance 
of  doctrine,"  and  tlie  congregations  which  composed  it 
seemed  generally  only  to  have  grasped  this  form  of  gov- 
ernment for  a  season,  as  something  tangible  and  compara- 
tively stable.  Hence,  in  1811,  says  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ezra 
Styles  Ely  (Contrast,  pp.  278,  279),  "  The  New  England 
churches  formerly  had  a  confession  and  system  of  ecclesi- 
astical government ;  but  the  admission  of  multitudes,  who 
disregarded  those  standards,  to  every  privilege  and  office, 
has  finally  produced  this  effect,  that  iew  churches  acknowl- 
edge the  authority  of  their  platforms  of  government,  and 
very  few  have  any  government  at  all.     That  the  Saybrook, 


342  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Cambridge  and  Boston  platforms  should  be  in  many 
churches  disregarded  after  the  most  solemn  adoption  by 
the  original  churches  of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  is 
not  wonderful,  when  we  remember  that  those  valuable  in- 
struments contain  the  marrow  of  Calvinism.  The  Hop- 
kinsians,  Sabellians,  Arians  and  Socinians  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  like  them. 

"  When  any  individual  is  admitted  to  the  Presbyterian 
church  in  the  United  States,  he  either  professes,  or  tacitly 
consents  sincerely  to  '  receive  and  adoi:)t  the  confession  of 
faith  of  this  church,  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine 
taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,'  and  '  no  i)erson,  who  is  not 
fully  convinced  of  the  truth  of  this  S3'stem,  or  who  is  not 
a  Calvinist  in  sentiment,  can  conscientiously  unite  him- 
self to  the  Presbyterian  church,  by  assent  to  its  confession 
of  faith.  Neither  can  such  a  person,  without  prevarica- 
tion, consent  to  the  standards  of  any  Presl)yterian  congre- 
gation in  the  United  States.  This  should  be  well  under- 
stood by  private  Christians  and  by  all  the  rulers  in  the 
household  of  faith.  A  confession  of  faith  should  be  a  bond 
of  union ;  but  it  will  be  of  no  utility,  when  persons  of  con- 
trary opinions,  upon  the  fundamental  articles  of  religion, 
subscribe  it.  It  then  only  becomes  the  bond  of  perpetual 
discord. 

"  Should  teachers  and  private  Christians,  seceders  from 
the  Calvinism  of  the  reformed  churches,  continue  to  enter 
the  Presbyterian  church,  the  result  must  probably  be, 
that  the  confession  of  faith  and  form  of  government  now 
(in  April,  1811)  used  with  the  most  happy  effect,  must 
soon,  like  the  Cambridge,  Boston  and  Saybrook  platforms, 
without  any  repeal,  be  consigned  to  the  garret,  there  to 
moulder  until  the  antiquarian  shall  deem  them  worthy  of 
a  place  in  his  library." 

I  thus  quote  extensively  from  this  candid  author,  be- 
cause the  fruits  of  expediency  were  now  (in  1828)  appear- 
ing as  apples  of  discord,  and  ministers  must,  in  modern 
phraseology,  settle  down  in  their  "  affinities."  The  Pres- 
byterian church  in  the  United  States  then  required  assent 
to  a  creed,  not  so  since  1869. 

"In  the  year  1801  a  conventional  agreement  was  en- 
tered into  with  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut,  by 
the  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  for  the  purpose 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  343 

of  preventing  alienation,  and  promoting  harmony  in  those 
new  settlements  which  were  then  composed  of  persons 
adhering  to  both  these  bodies."  {Dig.^  p.  575.)  By  this 
"a  standing  committee  for  the  exercise  of  discipline," 
chosen  by  the  church,  were  to  take  the  place  as  a  substi- 
tute for  a  constituted  session  of  ordained  ruling  elders  in 
church  courts,  and  from  whose  "  result "  no  appeal  could 
be  taken  to  a  Presbytery,  as  they  were  not  under  the  juris- 
diction of  any. 

This  "  breed  "  (by  the  crossing  of  two  species)  had  now 
grown  for  one-fourth  of  a  century,  and  in  the  face  of  dis- 
sents and  protests,  these  "mixed  societies"  even  forced 
their  unordained  men  into  the  Assembly  as  constituent 
members.  {Ih.)  This  body  being  now  honey-combed  in 
government,  it  was,  of  course,  proportionably  leavened  in- 
creasingly with  "seceders  from  the  Calvinism  of  the  Re- 
formed churches."  In  such  cases,  as  Socinianism  had 
now  extensivel}"  permeated  the  Congregational  societies 
of  Massachusetts,  so  this  plausible  scheme  of  Joab  and 
Amasa  charity,  to  gratify  the  lust  of  numbers,  brought 
members  into  churches,  and  congregations  into  Presby- 
teries, until  many  were  "  defiled  by  roots  of  bitterness." 

With  increasing  readiness  also,  Presbyterian  churches 
in  New  England  called  ministers  of  the  State  order,  to 
occupy  with  them  as  their  pastors.  Thus,  when  the  Rev. 
Daniel  Dana  was  called  to  the  Presidency  of  Dartmouth 
College,  in  1820,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Porter  Williams,  a  Con- 
gregationalist,  who  had  previously  labored  in  two  churches 
of  that  order,  was  settled,  February  8th,  1821,  as  pastor  of 
the  First  Presbyterian  church  in  Newburyport.  How  far 
pastors  and  people  in  both  Presbyteries,  had  become 
^'  seceders  from  the  Calvinism  of  the  Reformed  churches  " 
(in  the  absence  of  their  records),  we  can  but  approxi- 
mately ascertain.  It  is  probable  that  the  new  one  em- 
braced the  greatest  amount  of  heterodoxy,  for,  when  the 
"  plan  of  union  "  of  1801,  Avas,  as  an  "  unnatural  and  un- 
constitutional system  "  (Dig.^  p.  716)  abrogated  in  the  As- 
sembly by  a  vote  of  143  to  110,  in  1837,  "the  Presbytery 
of  Newburyport,  not  being  disposed  to  decide  between  the 
two  bodies  (Old  and  New  Schools)  claiming  the  name  and 
rights  of  the  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  has 
(says  the  Rev.  I.  F.  Stearns,  in  1846)  remained  separate." 


344  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

(Cen.  Ser.^  p.  47.)  This  the  mother  Presbytery,  much  to 
her  credit,  did  not  do,  and  the  churches  in  Newburyport, 
always  holding  the  catechism  "  for  substance  of  doctrine," 
soon  rejoined  her,  while  the  other  congregations,  "  not 
being  disposed  "  (when  in  Presbyterial  form)  "to  decide 
between  "  the  theology  of  the  Rev.  Albert  Barnes  and  that 
of  Princeton,  were  speedily  disintegrated,  carrying  with 
them  into  Congregationalism,  whatever  ecclesiastical  sub- 
stance they  occupied. 

Thus,  the  ninth  Presbytery  in  New  England  in  one 
hundred  and  ten  years  (with  its  predecessors),  after  an 
existence  of  twelve  years,  floated  into  oblivion  in  1838. 

The  Presbytery  of  Newburyport  was  formed  in  1825. 
The  pretext  seemingly  was,  that  as  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts was  more  influential  than  that  of  New  Hampshire, 
she  ought  to  have  a  Presbytery,  and  there  were  now 
enough  of  pastors  resident  in  the  Bay  State  for  the  pur- 
pose. When  constituted  by  the  Synod  of  Albany  out  (»f 
the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry,  it  consisted  of  the  first 
church  of  Newburyport,  the  church  of  Salem,  of  Princeton, 
Mass. ;  of  Dracut,  Milbury  and  Church  Street  church,  Bos- 
ton. It  continued  as  a  court  until. the  separation  of  the 
schools,  in  1838,  after  which  it  drifted,  and  by  1847  only 
the  First  church  in  Newburyport  retained  the  name,  in 
part  owing  to  their  arrangements  in  their  civil  matters  as 
Presbyterians,  and  to  their  experience  in  the  early  years  of 
their  existence. 

Again  we  look  west  of  the  river  Connecticut,  and  we  find 
Barnet,  Ryegate,  Topsham  and  Craftsbury  steadfast  in  their 
profession.  Near  the  end  of  the  last  century  the  Rev.  Jos. 
McKinney,  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church,  preached 
in  Ryegate,  and  in  1800  his  brother-in-law,  the  Rev.  Wm. 
Gibson,  of  the  same  persuasion,  was  settled  there  as  town 
minister. 

In  1802  they  ordained  the  Rev.  Saml.  B.  Wiley,  D.  D.,  in 
later  life  a  pastor  and  teacher  of  high  position  in  Philadel- 
phia. 

Until  1815  Mr.  Gibson  labored  faithfully  and  success- 
fully in  the  ministry  in  Ryegate,  and  in  1817  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Rev.  James  Milligan,  D.  D.  Previously  to 
settlement  there  he  had  preached  a  good  while  to  a  people 
in  Tunbridge,  and  a  little  congregation  was  there  furmed. 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  345 

This  was  crushed  out  by  resuscitating  the  Congregational- 
ist  society  of  the  town.  He  was  then  settled  pastor  of  the 
congregations  of  this  order  in  Vermont,  then  consisting  of 
about  eighty  regular  members,  extending  from  Tunbridge 
to  Barnet  and  Craftsbury,  a  territory  nearly  forty  miles 
square.  His  congregation  increased  rapidly  in  all  that 
range  of  country.  He  preached  frequently  in  Chelsea, 
Corinth,  Newbury,  Topsham,  Peacham,  Da'nville,  Cabot, 
Hardwicke,  etc.  About  1831  Mr.  Milligan  gave  a  branch 
of  his  congregation  in  Topsham  to  the  Rev.  Wm.  Sloan, 
who  obtained  the  minister's  lot  of  that  town.  He  labored 
faithfully  there  for  some  years,  but  his  support  was  inade- 
quate and  he  left. 

Although  Topsham  never  returned  formally  to  the  pas- 
toral charge  of  Mr.  Milligan,  still  he  supplied  them  occa- 
sionally, took  a  friendly  care  of  them  as  far  as  he  could, 
and  as  they  needed.  In  the  meantime  he  gave  Craftsbury, 
a  church  of  above  sixty  members,  over  to  the  care  of  the 
Rev.  Samuel  M.  Wilson,  who,  after  a  few  years,  removed  to 
Delaware  county,  N.  Y. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  nephew,  the  Rev.  R.  Z.  Wilson, 
who  at  the  end  of  this  quarter  had  charge  of  that  congre- 
gation. Mr.  Milligan  labored  still  in  Ryegate  and  Barnet, 
and  with  the  consent  of  his  people,  i)eriormed  several  mis- 
sionary tours  into  Canada,  upper  and  lower.  Difficulties 
arose  in  his  congregation  about  "lining  the  psalms."  The 
New  England  people  favored  book  singing,  and  the  Scotch 
were  zealous  for  lining.  He  took  part  against  the  Scotch, 
and  had  on  account  of  the  difficulties  to  leave  them  in 
1839.  After  his  removal  the  Ryegate  and  Barnet  people 
called  the  Rev.  James  Milligan  Beattie,  who  has  since,  not 
only  to  1843,  till  1868,  but  till  1881  been  their  pastor.  In 
1856  the  Rev.  N.  R.  Johnston  was  pastor  of  the  Topsham 
congregation,  and  Mr.  R.  Shields,  a  probationer,  was 
preaching  in  Craftsbury. 

During  the  ministry  of  Mr.  Milligan  a  division  took 
place  in  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  in  America  re- 
specting the  use  of  the  elective  franchise — one  party  main- 
taining that  those  who  exercised  it  under  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  ought  to  be  subjected  to  the  discipline  of 
the  church;  the  other  maintaining  that  this  should  be 
made  a  matter  of  forbearance.     This  resulted,  in  a.  d.  1833, 


346  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

in  the  formation  of  two  separate  synods.  The  effect  was 
soon  felt  in  Ryegate,  and  in  1843  the  church  was  hopelessly 
divided.  Those  who  would  make  it  not  a  matter  of  disci- 
pline bat  of  forbearance,  were  recognized  as  the  congrega- 
tion of  the  General  Synod  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian 
Church,  or  New  School.  Those  who  considered  it  a  matter 
of  duty  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  the  elective  franchise 
were  and  are  called  the  Reformed  Presbyterians,  or  Old 
School. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Milligan  left,  the  New  Light  division  ob- 
tained an  organization  in  South  Ryegate,  and  had  (in 
1856)  one  or  two  congregations  in  Caledonia  and  Orange 
counties,  Vermont. 

During  the  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  David  Goodwillie  in 
the  Associate  church  in  Barnet  from  1790  to  1830,  more 
than  four  hundred  persons  were  enrolled  as  members,  be- 
side more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  probably  in  Ryegate, 
which  from  1790  till  1822  shared  one-sixth  of  his  labor. 

In  September,  1826,  his  son  Thomas  was  installed  as  his 
assistant  in  Barnet,  while  in  1822  the  Rev.  Thomas  Ferrier 
was  inducted  as  pastor  in  Ryegate,  which  charge  he  held 
for  five  years. 

In  June,  1830,  by  the  Presbytery  of  Cambridge  (N.  Y.), 
Mr.  William,  son  of  the  Rev.  Alexander  Pringle  (who  was 
for  more  than  sixty  years  pastor  of  the  Associate  congre- 
gation of  Perth,  Scotland),  was  ordained  as  their  pastor, 
and  continued  in  that  office  till  1852. 

In  1840  the  Presbytery  of  Cambridge  was  rent  by  faction, 
and  from  1846  the  Rev.  James  McArthur  ministered  one- 
half  of  his  time  in  Ryegate,  and  the  other  half  at  Stevens' 
village,  in  Barnet.  He  resigned  these  charges  in  1857. 
This  was  well,  for  it  would  have  taken  a  much  longer  time 
for  the  wrath,  prejudice  and  partisan  spirit  of  man  there 
to  "  work  the  righteousness  of  God." 

Living  remote  from  Cambridge  and  being  prospered  as 
pastoral  charges,  the  ministers  and  congregations  in  the 
State  adhering  to  that  Presbytery  were,  on  July  10th,  1840, 
according  to  the  decree  of  the  Associate  Synod,  constituted 
the  Associate  Presbytery  of  Vermont.  It  might  not  be 
amiss  here  to  ask  how  it  was  that  these  congregations 
under  Milligan,  Goodwillie,  Pringle,  and;  others  prospered 
as  Presbyterians,  while  not  a  few  (as  noticed)  sank  into  ob- 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  347 

livion,  or,  if  holdin.s^  their  form  of  government,  they  merely 
continued  to  exist  from  1818  till  1843? 

One  reason  obviously  was  that  "  the  doctrine  of  God,  our 
Saviour"  was  to  them  of  more  importance  than  the  "divers 
and  strange  doctrines  "  with  which  Congregationalism  had 
flooded  New  England.  The  Shorter  Catechism  was  inva- 
riably their  "  form  of  sound  words."  But  their  grasp  of 
this  was  strengthened  by  the  use  of  the  inspired  psalms. 
These  as  a  portion  of  "  the  word  which  has  proceeded  out 
of  the  mouth  of  God,"  and  by  which  alone  man  is  ever  to 
live,  formed  a  part  of  their  daily  bread. 

Their  toil  must  vary  with  the  seasons,  but  with  them  it 
was  as  imperative  as  it  was  pleasant  to  "  shew  forth  the  lov- 
ing kindness  of  God  in  the  morning,  and  to  declare  to  him 
his  faithfuhiess  every  night."  Like  the  dwellers  on 
"  West  Running  Brook,"  in  Derry,a  century  before,  they  be- 
gan and  ended  each  day  with  family  worship,  and  by  them 
*'  the  house  of  God  "  was  not  "  forsaken."  "  This  formed  the 
axis  of  their  (daily)  mind ;  this  made  them  steadfast  in 
their  good  old  way."  "  The  church  in  the  house  "  was  with 
them  a  power  -subservient  to  the  purity  of  doctrine,  the 
fulfilment  of  daily  duties,  the  patient  endurance  of  toil  and 
trial,  the  support  of  ordinances,  and  the  growth  of  the  di- 
vine life  in  their  souls  and  the  souls  of  their  children. 
Family  worship  is  set  up  and  maintained  only  where  that 
*'  fear  of  God  which  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom  "  exists, 
while  its  "  fruit  is  unto  holiness  and  the  end  everlasting  life." 

Households  thus  trained,  with  less  difiiculty  than 
others,  "  serve  their  generation  by  the  will  of  God."  They 
abide  under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty,  and  "  render  to 
Csesar  the  things  that  are  his."  For  all  this,  the  use,  the 
increased  understanding,  and  the  spiritual  realization  of 
"the  glorious  psalms,  which  have  been  dropped  down 
from  an  higher  plane"  (Rev.  Joseph  Cook),  not  the  "en- 
ticing words  of  man's  wisdom  "  in  poetry  can  alone  avail. 

In  some  four  or  five  towns  of  Caledonia  and  Orleans 
counties,  Vermont,  at  the  end  of  this  quarter  of  a  century, 
the  Psalms,  while  they  were  ignored  or  consigned  to  ob- 
livion in  all  places  elsewhere  in  New  England,  were  there 
used  as  the  matter  of  praise  to  Jehovah.  To  supply  the 
congregations  named  when  vacant,  and  to  occupy  in 
growing  stations,  required  not  a  little  labor  at  this  point 


348  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

SO  distant  beyond  the  Green  Mountains,  yet  the  demand 
was  met.  As  an  item  illustrative,  I  i^resent  the  statement 
of  Mrs.  William  Gray,  of  Ryegate,  made  October  21st, 
1876,  who  was  married  in  1813,  and  was  "given  to  hos- 
pitality : " 

"I  have  entertained''  (here  naming  them)  "in  sixty- 
three  years  thirty-eight  ministers,  who  all  came  from  the 
State  of  New  York  and  beyond  as  pastors  and  supplies  to 
our  vacancies." 

During  the  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  Wm.  Morrison,  D.  D., 
the  church  of  Londonderry  received  substantial  aid  from 
the  estate  of  Elder  John  Pinkerton,  who  died  in  May, 
1816.  "  He  bestowed  nine  thousand  dollars  upon  each  of 
the  two  Presbyterian  congregations  in  town  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  gospel,  and  thirteen  thousand  as  a  fund  for  the 
support  of  an  academy."     (P.) 

He  wisely  directed  how  his  earnings  should  be  used, 
and  of  his  will  so  much  is  transferred  to  his  tombstone  as 
shews  that  so  long  as  the  doctrine  taught  in  Princeton,  N. 
J.,  should  be  inculcated  there,  so  long  should  said  funds 
be  enjoyed  by  that  Presbyterian  church.  To  teach 
another  doctrine  would  "impair  the  obligations  of  the 
contract ;  "  hence  the  Londonderry  church  continued  to  be 
Presbyterian,  while  those  "given  to  change  "(some  twenty- 
three  members)  about  1839,  united  with  forty  from  East 
Derry,  and  formed  the  Congregational  "  society  "  in  Derry 
Lower  village.     {Pert.) 

Dr.  Morrison  was  succeeded,  January  15th,  1822,  by  the 
Rev.  Daniel  Dana,  D.  D.,  who  was  called  from  the  presi- 
dency of  Dartmouth  College,  and  on  his  own  request  he 
was  released  in  April,  1826. 

He  was  succeeded  on  June  25th,  1828,  by  the  Rev. 
Amasa  A.  Ha3^es,  who  died  October  23d,  1830,  greatly  la- 
mented. On  October  5th,  1831,  the  Rev.  John  R.  Adams 
was  installed,  and  on  his  own  request  he  was  dismissed  by 
the  Presbytery  in  September,  1838,  In  Londonderry  the 
town  meetings  have  always  been  opened  with  prayer. 
This  was  a  not  unfrequent  custom  in  many  towns  when 
sound  doctrine  was  maintained  and  godliness  was  shewn 
in  New  England,  although  to  infidelity  now  it  looks  very 
much  like  "  church  and  state."  The  Rev.  Timothy  G. 
Brainerd  was  installed  pastor  in  that  church  on  November 
5th,  1840. 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  349 

Since  1827  the  old  or  east  town  had  been  by  legislative 
enactment  called  Derry,  and  in  it  the  Rev.  E.  L.  Parker, 
who  was  ordained  and  installed  on  Sej^tember  12th, 
1810,  continued  successfully  to  labor  through  this  quarter 
of  a  century.  His  fort  was  not  in  the  teaching  of  "  the 
doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour,"  distinguishing  things  which 
difter,  but  in  practical  instruction  and  diligence  in  pastoral 
labor  ^^  from  house  to  housed  "  No  one  ever  heard  from  his 
pulpit  the  distinctive  views  or  modes  of  philosophizing 
adopted  by  Edwards,  Hopkins,  D wight,  Burton  or  Em- 
mons." Yet  in  his  charge  of  nearly  four  hundred  fam- 
ilies, and  nearly  two  thousand  souls,  it  was  affirmed  by 
others  that  he  knew  the  name  of  every  child.  The  people 
had  now  for  a  century  formed  religious  habits  of  family 
catechizing,  family  worship,  attachment  to  the  house  of 
God,  Sabbath  sanctification,  and  respect  to  their  pastors 
when  worthy  of  their  confidence,  so  that  he  had  "  other 
men's  lines  of  things  made  ready  to  his  hand." 

Beside  this  he  was  surrounded  by  a  large  number  of 
ruling  elders,  who  "magnified  their  office"  in  "taking 
heed  to  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  had  made 
them  bishops;"  so,  notwithstanding  that  the  disturbing 
parties,  who  had  previously  sold  their  Presbyterian 
"birthright"  for  less  than  a  "mess  of  pottage,"  had  re- 
turned, and  confidence  in  them  must  have  been  exten- 
sively "like  a  broken  tooth,  or  a  foot  out  of  joint,"  the 
congregation  as  a  working  church  thus  manned  w^ere 
probably  not  surpassed  by  any  (and  probably  not 
equalled)  in  New  England  for  efficiency.  While  all 
things  were  thus  conducted  well,  "  decently  and  in  order," 
the  pastor  acted  on  the  principle  that  youth  is  the  seed 
time  of  life,  and  "  years  previous  to  the  establishment  of 
Sabbath  schools  in  New  England,  he  adopted  measures  to 
give  the  youth  of  his  charge  a  more  extensive  and  exact 
knowledge  of  the  Bible. 

"As  early  as  1815  he  established  monthly  the  'Adelphi ' 
society  for  young  men  and  (meeting  at  a  different  time 
with  the  same  frequency)  the  Young  Ladies'  Catechetical 
Society."  These  were  expected  to  illustrate  and  establish 
particular  assigned  subjects  by  texts  of  Scripture.  Few 
congregations  had  a  more  promising  circle  of  young  men 
than  this  one,  before  the  advantages  held  out  to  them  from 


350  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

abroad  induced  tliem  to  leave  their  native  place.  He 
would  persuade  the  youth  to  commit  to  memory  the  Shorter 
Catechism,,  and  for  many  years  his  custom  was  to  give  a 
pocket  Testament  to  every  child  who  would  repeat  it  per- 
fectly. This  was  wisdom.  When  Sabbath  schools  and 
temperance  societies  were  introduced,  he  was  earnest  that 
all  the  children  might  take  an  interest  in  them;  and  to 
promote  general  education,  he  during  almost  the  whole  of 
his  ministry  visited  the  eight  or  ten  week-day  schools 
each  four  times  a  year.  Tiie  scholars  knew  that  their 
progress  was  marked,  and  were  thus  quickened  to  nobler 
exertions  for  the  next  school  visitation.  In  the  diffusion 
and  enjoyment  of  higher  education,  both  pastor  and  people 
were  active.  He  was  a  trustee  in  both  the  Pinkerton 
Academy  and  in  the  Adams^  Female  Academy  from  their 
first  establishment,  and  was  President  of  both  boards  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  In  favorable  weather  he  usually 
preached  three  times  on  the  Sabbath,  in  the  evening  at  an 
outpost  in  one  of  the  school-houses,  and  it  is  judged  that 
on  an  average  he  preached  three  lectures  a  week.  The 
first  temperance  society  and  the  first  Sabbath  school  in  the 
State,  it  is  believed,  were  by  him  established  in  Derry." 

As  we  have  seen,  in  1786  Mrs.  Agnes  Wilson  refused  to 
have  her  pew,  owned  in  her  own  right,  taxed  for  the  re- 
pairs and  painting  of  the  church,  when  a  majority  of  the 
pew  proprietors  and  others  "  impaired  the  obUgations  of 
the  contract "  made  between  John  Little  and  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  his  trust  by  voting  Presbyterian  property  into 
Congregational  use.  And  while  she  had  the  mortification 
to  see  a  stranger  of  another  denomination  foisted  into  her 
father's  pulpit,  and  sought  religious  instruction  for  her- 
self and  her  family  elsewhere,  she  lived  to  see  not  less 
than  four  other  occupants  in  the  desk  of  Federal  Street 
Church — Belknap,  in  1787,  Popkin,  in  1799,  Channing,  in 
1803,  and  Gannett,  in  1824,  when  she  was  eighty-seven 
years  old. 

She  witnessed  at  least  one  other  revolution  beside  that 
of  colonial  independence,  but  of  an  opposite  character — • 
one  in  which  "  the  Son  of  God  was  trodden  under  foot,  the 
blood  of  the  covenant  wherewith  he  was  sanctified  counted 
an  unholy  thing,  and  despite  done  unto  the  Spirit  of 
grace,"  and  all  this  in  "  the  Irish  Presbyterian  meeting- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  351 

house  "  in  the  presence  of  John  Little's  pew,  by  the  opera- 
tion of  Congregationalism,  in  the  space  of  thirty-eight 
years. 

During  this  period,  1818-1843,  several  changes  in  the  way 
of  worship  were  introduced  in  Newburyport,  such  as  not 
reading  out  the  hymn,  line  by  line,  dropping,  in  connection 
with  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Suj^per,  the  week-day 
meetings,  all  except  the  fast  on  Tuesday,  and  the  "fencing  " 
of  the  table.  This  implies  that  they  still  sat  down  at 
a  table,  and  did  not  hand  the  elements  around. 

In  the  Prospect  Street  Church,  after  the  usage  had  been 
discontinued  by  Mr.  Miltimore  in  the  first  Presbyterian, 
Mr.  Milton,  who  was  a  foreigner,  it  is  said,  continued 
the  practice  till  his  death.  Adopting  a  course  similar 
to  the  one  pursued  by  Mr.  Murray  in  the  close  of  his 
sermon,  he  would  say :  "  From  our  subject  we  learn  who 
have  and  who  have  not  a  right  to  come  to  this  holy 
table.  Surely  they  have  no  right  here,  who  trample  under 
their  feet  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  and  do 
despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace.  I  do,  therefore,  solemnly 
enclose  and  fence  this  table;  I  do  warn  all  unregenerated 
persons  not  to  draw  near;  I  debar  all  who  deny  the  impu- 
tation of  sin  and  righteousness,  for  they  can  never  have 
known  the  plague  of  their  own  hearts,  nor  the  need  of 
righteousness  answerable  to  the  demands  of  the  law — all 
Arminians,  for  they  depend  on  and  seek  to  justify  them- 
selves by  their  own  Avorks — all  Antinomians,  who  profess 
to  receive  him  by  faith,  but  in  works  deny  him — all 
Arians  and  Socinians,"  etc.,  etc. 

Although  such  exercises  wear  a  barbaric  aspect,  not 
only  to  those  who  "  live  according  to  the  course  of  this 
world,"  under  modern  culture,  but  to  all  hymn-singers, 
yet  they  were  potent,  under  God  the  Spirit,  in  "  warning 
the  unruly  and  comforting  the  feeble-minded,"  while  they 
made  those  who  were  "strong  in  the  Lord"  "ponder  the 
paths  of  their  feet,"  as  they  were  about  to  "  take  the  cup 
of  salvation." 

The  Rev.  John  Proudfit,  D.  D.,  was  called  from  Rutgers 
College,  New  Jersey,  and  installed  pastor  of  the  first  Pres- 
byterian church  in  Newburyport,  on  October  4th,  1827. 
At  this  date  the  efficiency  of  the  means  of  grace  seems  to 
have  continued,  and  while,  during  his  ministry,  two  con> 


352  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

munions  passed  without  additions,  still  his  annual  average 
for  five  and  one-half  years  about  equalled  the  entire  united 
annual  increase  of  his  predecessors.  Parsons  had  an  annual 
increase  averaging  ten  ;  Murray,  seven ;  Dana,  eight ;  Wil- 
liams, fifteen  ;  and  Proudfit,  thirty-nine. 

His  health  failed.  On  July  3d,  1831,  he  sailed  for 
Europe,  and  was  absent  till  January,  1832.  His  pulpit 
was  supplied  by  Rev.  Mr.  Cheever  and  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Abbott,  Congregationalists. 

On  June  21st,  a  four  days'  meeting  was  commenced  at 
j\Ir.  Milton's  church,  as  most  central,  b}"  Drs.  Beecher, 
Wisner,  Adams,  and  Rev.  Messrs.  Cumming,  Cleaveland, 
Blanchard,  and  others — all  Congregationalists.  In  four- 
teen months  one  hundred  and  twenty  united  with  this 
church,  and  by  October,  1832,  the  usual  reaction  took 
place,  when,  "  owing  to  some  recent  difficulties,"  twenty- 
nine  asked  dismissions,  and  Mr.  Cheever  would  probably 
have  been  settled  in  town,  could  a  church  have  been  ob- 
tained for  him.  (V.)  On  razeeing  the  house,  in  1829,  by 
which  "  the  inside  was  somewhat  reduced  in  size,  the  ceil- 
ing lowered,  new  galleries  put  in,  the  pulpit  removed  from 
the  side,"  and  a  monument  erected  over  the  crypt  of  the 
immortal  Whitefield  (whose  remains,  excepting  the  pur- 
loined migrating  arm-bone,  taken  to  England,  and  after 
years  returned,  liad  rested  in  this  venerable  building  since 
soon  after  his  death,  on  September  30th,  1770),  "  a  '  whis- 
pering gallery,'  unsurpassed,  it  is  said,  unless  by  St.  Paul's, 
in  London,  was  accidentally  discovered.  This  forms  a 
conspicuous  feature  of  the  building  at  present."  (lb.) 

Dr.  Proudfit  was  dismissed  on  January  24th,  1833.  To 
the  people,  or  rather  to  the  cause  of  "  order  "  among  them 
after  their  revival,  his  departure  was  particularly  unhappy. 
An  "awakening"  produced  by  the  instrumentality  of  nine 
or  more  Congregationalist  preachers,  with  their  "  exercise," 
"  taste,"  "  substratum,"  and  other  "  schemes,"  could  hardly 
be  supposed  to  make  a  church  of  Presbyterians  more 
"  steadfast  and  immovable  in  the  work  of  the  Lord.'^ 
Consequently,  during  two  years  and  a  half,  many  candi- 
dates were  heard.  Some  professors  were  disposed  to  have 
the  church  (as  in  1744-6)  turned  over  to  Congregation- 
alism, and  were  only  hindered  in  their  revolutionary  enter- 
prise by  the  parish  under  its  civil  organization.     One  or 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  353 

two  calls  were  given,  but  without  success.  They  had  to 
let  the  effervescence  pass  off. 

On  September  16th,  1835,  Mr.  Jonathan  F.  Stearns  was 
ordained  over  them.  His  mmistry  was  faithfully  con- 
ducted from  youth  to  riper  years  with  peace  and  good 
success. 

"  In  April,  1825,  the  pastoral  relation  which  had  sub- 
sisted between  the  Rev.  David  McGregor  and  the  congre- 
gation of  Bedford,  N.  H.,  for  above  twenty  years,  was,  by 
mutual  consent,  dissolved  by  Presbytery.  His  ministry, 
it  is  believed,  was  greatly  blessed."  (P.) 

This  church,  being  formed  of  descendants  of  the  "  Scotch- 
Irish  "  race  more  extensively  than  almost  any  other  one  in 
New  England  (excepting  Londonderry  and  Windham), 
has  been  less  "  carried  away  with  every  wind  of  doctrine," 
and  consequently  has  vitality  as  well  as  "  a  name  to  live." 
Over  it  the  Rev.  Thomas  Savage  was  installed  on  July  5th, 
1826,  and  at  the  end  of  this  quarter  of  a  century  (1843) 
we  find  him  and  them  "  prospering  in  all  things,"  at  least 
equally  with  others  around  them  who,  as  they  had  done, 
have  abandoned  the  appointed  puritv  of  Divine  worship. 
Their  first  meeting-house  served  nearly  eighty  years.  A 
new  one  was  built  in  1832. 

Antrim,  N.  H.,  where  the  first  sermon  was  preached  in 
September,  1775,  and  where  the  Rev.  Walter  Little  was, 
from  1800  till  1804,  their  first  pastor,  during  these  twenty- 
five  years,  enjoyed  the  stated  ministry  of  the  Rev.  John 
M.  Whiton,  D."^  D.  He  was  ordained  September  28th, 
1808,  and,  supported  by  a  session  of  twelve  ruling  elders, 
his  ministry  was  eminently  successful.  "  The  year  1827 
was  distinguished  by  a  remarkable  attention  to  religion, 
and  resulted  in  the  addition  of  one  hundred  persons  to 
his  church."  (P.) 

Over  Windham — which  was  incorporated  in  1742,  and 
Avhich  had  enjoyed  the  labors  successively  of  the  Rev.  Wm. 
Johnston,  ReV.'john  Kinkead,  and  the  Rev.  Simon  Wil- 
liams— the  Rev.  Samuel  Harris  was  ordained  in  1805.  In 
1826,  owing  to  the  failure  of  his  voice,  the  pastoral  rela- 
tion was  dissolved.  He  was  succeeded,  in  1828,  by  the 
Rev.  Calvin  Cutler,  who  was  ordained  in  April,  and  minis- 
tered to  this  congregation  until  his  death,  in  1844. 

Of  the  days  of  sorrow  and  shame  in  Peterboro,  by  the 
23 


354  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

atrocious  misconduct  of  Morrison  and  Annan,  we  have 
seen  more  than  enough.  At  the  beginning  of  this  century 
the  "society"  adopted  Congregational  forms,  and  voted, 
that  once  in  each  year  the  communion  should  be  observed 
in  Presbyterian  order  by  a  Presbyterian  minister.  "  This 
iService  was  for  many  years  performed  by  the  Rev.  Wm. 
Morrison,  D.  D." 

In  1822,  a  portion  of  the  people,  who  had  never  been 
jileased  with  the  Congregational  customs,  and  others,  who 
li.id  not  been  quite  at  ease  under  an  Arminian  preacher, 
withdrew,  and  were,  on  application,  formed  into  a  Presby- 
terian church.  In  1825  they  built  a  meeting-house,  and 
in  1827  the  Rev.  Peter  Holt»was  installed  their  pastor.  In 
March,  1835,  he  resigned  the  office,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Pine, 
who  was  installed  the  next  year,  was  dismissed  in  January, 
1837.  For  two  years  the  Rev.  Joshua  Barret  was  stated 
supply.  On  March  18th,  1840,  the  Rev.  James  R.  French 
was  ordained  their  pastor,  and  he  was  still  olhciating  there 
in  1843. 

They  had  thus  in  twenty  years  three  pastors  and  one 
supply — rather  too  many  teachers  for  "godly  edifying," 
yet  they  shewed  a  due  appreciation  of  the  means  of  grace, 
without  which  no  community  can  long  and  truly  prosper, 
religiously,  socially,  or  civilly. 

In  West  Derry,  after  the  death  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  IMorrison, 
in  1818,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dana  was,  with  great  unanimity, 
elected.  Of  his  salary  of  seven  hundred  dollars,  one  hun- 
dred were  added,  by  subscription,  to  the  income  of  the 
Pinkerton  fund.  Pie  was  installed  on  January  15th,  1822. 
This  pastoral  relation  was,  as  we  have  noticed,  on  his  re- 
quest and  by  their  consent  (most  unwillingly  given),  dis- 
solved in  April,  1826.  This  was  the^Vs^  instance  of  a  dis- 
missal in  that  congregation  since  its  organization. 

Dr.  Dana  was  soon  afterwards  installed  pastor  of  the 
second  Presbyterian  church  in  Newburyport. 

Over  this  people  in  West  Derry  Mr.  Amasa  A.  Hayes 
was  ordained  June  25th;  1828,  by  some  six  clergymen, 
three  of  whom — Bradford,  Holt  and  Savage — belonged  to 
the  Presbytery.  In  a  little  over  two  years  he  had  "  fin- 
ished "  his  pastoral  "  course."  He  died  on  October  23d, 
1830. 

Mr.  John  R.  Adams  was  ordained  on  October  5th^  1831. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  355 

Of  the  seven  ministers  who  then  installed  him,  four  be- 
longed to  the  Presbytery,  viz. :  Holt,  Parker,  Savage  and 
Bradford.  In  these  congregations  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  office  of  ruling  elder  was  maintained  so  long  as 
they  Avore  the  Presbyterian  name.  In  order  to  it,  there 
must  be  rulers  and  ruled.  The  common-sense  of  persons 
trained  in  Presbyterian  families  insured  this.  Hence,  as 
space  does  not  permit,  I  make  no  mention  of  the  ordina- 
tion of  this  class  of  cluirch  rulers.  Ordination  and  in- 
stallation are  implied  in  the  office. 

While  a  part  of  "  the  course  "  in  our  "  schools  of  the 
prophets  "  ends  oftentimes  in  the  conversion  of  students 
to  a  belief  in  the  text,  "  It  is  not  good  tliat  the  man 
should  be  alone,"  and  not  a  few  discover  the  "plighted 
partners  of  their  future  lives,"  while  they  are  delving  into 
Hebrew  and  theology,  yet  not  so  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Adams. 
He  did  not  do  even  so  wise  a  thing,  but  married  a  ]\Iiss 
McGregor,  of  Londonderry,  in  1832.  Results  seldom  vin- 
dicate the  wisdom  of  such  an  important  step  in  or  near 
the  seminar}^  and  it  should  be  especially  avoided  by  a 
pastor  in  his  own  congregation,  where  a  very  superior 
force  of  character  built  upon  and  embellished  by  divine 
grace  can  alone  command  respect  and  insure  usefulness 
to  one  among  her  mere  equals,  who  has  the  duties  to 
perform  connected  with  one  of  the  most  important  posi- 
tions, if  not  the  most  important,  which  woman  can  occupy 
on  earth. 

Not  only  in  common  with  those  of  other  godly  mothers 
should  "  her  children  rise  up  and  call  her  blessed,"  but  by 
her  influences  and  daily  life,  "  her  husband  "  should  be 
"  known  in  the  gates  when  he  sitteth  among  the  elders  of 
the  land." 

It  is  supposed  that  his  action  and  experience  justified 
these  statements.  In  September,  1838,  he  resigned,  and 
in  October  the  pastoral  relation  was  dissolved  by  Presby- 
tery. 

Mr.  Timothy  G.  Brainard  was  ordained  on  November 
5th,  1840,  and  ni  1843  was  still  the  pastor  in  Londonderry. 
We  thus  find  Presbyterianism  in  New  England  at  the  end 
of  this  quarter  of  a  century  embracing  only  the  congrega- 
tions of  Barnet,  Ryegate,  Topsham,  Peacham  and  Crafts- 
bury,  retaining  as  the  matter  of  praise  to  God  in  the  sane- 


356  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

tuary  and  in  their  families,  as  their  fathers  did,  "  the 
words  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teach eth  in  the  Psalter,"  and 
in  the  use  in  their  churches  of  "  the  enticing  words  of 
man's  wisdom,"  which  brought  "expressive  silence  "  into 
their  households,  to  "meditate  his  praise  "  in  the  congre- 
gations of  Derrs^,  Londonderry,  Windham,  Litchfield,  Am- 
herst, Peterboro,  Antrim,  Bedford,  New  Market,  New  Bos- 
ton, with  the  first  and  second  ones  of  Newburyport,  while 
possibly  others  continued  to  retain  the  name  and  this  form 
of  government. 

The  system  of  doctrine,  government,  discipline  and 
worship  resting  on  a  "thus  saith  the  Lord,"  was  now  so 
compressed  by  that  built  upon  "  Go  to,  let  us,"  from  the 
Connecticut  river  to  Great  Menan,  that  it  was  no  longer 
felt  to  be  a  distinct  force  in  upliolding  and  embellishing 
the  social  relations  as  it  had  been  in  those  days,  when  the 
town  of  Derry  paid  the  one-fourteenth  of  the  taxes  of  the 
entire  State.  Congregationalism  was  now  almost  wholly 
"at  ease  in  her  possessions  "  in  her  "  native  land."  The 
forces  of  Protestant  Episcopacy  and  Methodism  were  how- 
ever increash]g,  and  Popery  had  now  three  chapels  in 
Boston,  beside  foundations  in  many  other  New  England 
cities  and  towns. 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  357 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

1843-68 — Marked  changes  appear — Enterprise — Scotland  and  New  Eng- 
land— Watt,  Morse — The  factory  and  its  surroundings — Thomson' 
ville — First  company — Worshipped  at  Enfield — Mitchell — A  build- 
ing for  school  and  church — Supplied  by  Professors  until  1838 — Home 
Missionary  society — Efforts  to  sustain  ordinances — All  but  two  for 
Presbyterian  organization — Rev.  Dr.  Harvey — A  good  thing  out  of 
Nazareth — Eighty-two  members — First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Con- 
necticut, excepting  Voluntown — Carpet  company  build  a  house  for 
them — "Customs"  and  the  town  of  Berkeley  men — Old  School  organ 
— Instruments — The  choir — Above  four  hundred  dollars  of  the  salary 
moved  out — Meetings — A  society — An  organization  asked — Granted 
— Effected — "A  peculiar  people  " — Rev.  W.  McLaren — Tears — Now 
the  scene  was  reversed — Rev.  P.  Gordon — A  rare  class  of  operatives — 
Within  one  year — A  pastor  settled — The  Carpet  company  failed — 
Gordon  resigned — The  bread  of  life — McLaughlin — Spiritual  condi- 
tion good — He  returned  to  Ireland — Rev.  J.  M.  Heron — His  pastorate 
— Secession — Men  left — He  resigned — They  called  others — An  elo- 
quent deception — Firmness  of  the  congregation — Rev.  G.  M.  Hall 
called — Four  and  a  half  years — Resigned — Boston — The  name  ex- 
tinct for  seventeen  years — A  Scotch  preaching — March  6th — May 
20th — On  the  seventeenth  application  for  a  hall  was  successful — The 
Mount  Zion — He  awoke  to  zeal — "  We  are  not  informed  " — Men  of 
distinction — Others — Vice  increasing — Kneeland,  Ballon,  Parker — 
Unitarians — But  three  families — A  "Derry"  girl — A  "lassie" — A 
case  I  mention — "  You  can  never  be  my  minister  " — The  prejudice  of 
race — The  Mull  of  Kintyre — Fairhead — Each  aimed  to  have  a 
preacher — The  pioneers — "  Preaching  as  high  as  the  top  of  the  State 
House  "—"Out  West"— The  Scot  held  at  bay— "Conflict  of  ages"— 
Invoked  in  vain — The  pioneer  in  his  work — Mr.  John  Fisher  fleshy 
and  "fleshly" — The  pioneer  installed — To  go  into  the  highways — 
Years  of  prosperity — An  exotic — A  change — Friction  must  ensue — 
Divisions  lowered  the  standard  of  discipline — He  sought  relief — ■ 
Events  concurred — One  man  full  of  zeal — He  left — A  minister  com- 
ing— The  church  prospered  till  secession  came — Union — United  Pres- 
byterian Church — An  episode — Our  holy  and  beautiful  house — An 
ominous  silence — Could  not  be  sold — "Old  Harry"  Adams — pro  tem 
— Yon  could  not  make  a  better  deed — De  jure  till  now — Little — Bene- 
ficiaries bound  to  prevent  the  perversion  of  the  trust — The  oath — We 
entered  suit — No  range  of  equity — Attorney — Appointed — A  surprise 
—They  concealed  the  "  Memoir  " — Records  of  Session — This  religious 


358  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

society — Records  did  some  of  them  no  honor — Sent  to  the  light — Car- 
rying records  across  the  street — Awry  shapes — Affidavit — As  taken 
very  mild  and  safe — "  Truth  in  a  horn  " — Mr.  Choate — A  most  elab- 
orate case — Shaw's  hold — ]\[etcalf — Outraged — This  was  so — (1  Tim. 
ii.  5) — His  logic — Blasphemy — The  decision  stirred  up  conscience — 
Too  strong  for  justice — An  intolerant  species  of  deism — A  remnant — 
The  occupants  did  not  fully  suppose  they  owned — They  invoked  the 
Legislature— The  society  worth  $22,000,000— Began  to  thitik— And 
they  now  paused — This  could  not  be  done — May  loth,  1855 — Out  of 
love  and  fear  they  spent  $4,700.  on  repairs — What  C.  Gushing  said 
— Oh,  how  I  would  like — The  decision  has  no  equal  on  tins  continent 
— A  technical  quibble— The  restriction — One-fifty-sixth  part  of  its 
value — They  refused  to  take  Unitarian  money — The  auctioneer's  of- 
fice— A  protest — A  group  for  Punch — No  sale,  no  pay — 120  families 
— Respectable — Bought  damaged — Replication — Review — Bill  to  bill 
— Filed' — Waited  long — Printed — A  sworn  official — Never  to  have 
been  filed — A  contrast — Presbyterians  should  pray — A  shaky  thing — ■ 
The  result  before  the  National  Court  would  liav'e  been  different — Dr. 
Lothrop — Did  not  desist — Might  "  lay  judgment  to  the  line" — "An 
unco  squad" — "Leave  to  withdraw  " — A  plea — Obtained  the  same 
consideration  and  courtesy — This  pioneer  church  prospered — Preach- 
ing— Week-day  services  and  tlie  Press — Eighty-six  reviews — McGee 
— Phillips — Asso.  Reformed  and  United  Presbyterian — Fall  River — A 
high  position — Operatives — To  them  the  Associate  Presbytery  of 
Albany  sent  supply — Chauncey  Webster — Rev.  H.  H.  Blair — 1836 — 
Two  elders  chosen — Rev.  D.  Gordon — Associate  Presbytery  of  New 
York  gave  supplies  till  1840 — Commercial  depression  of  1837 — Un- 
able to  sustain — Their  case  for  five  years  not  known — Rev.  J.  B.  Dales 
visited  them  in  1846 — Rev.  Andrew  Johnston  organized  them  as 
Associate  Reformed — No  preachers  to  supply — Rev.  Wm.  McLaren — 
Built — Every  shingle  mortgaged — Rev.  T.  G.  Carver — Called  January, 
1849 — Exchange  their  house — Debt,  hopes  and  energies  increased — 
Carver  preached  "  another  gospel" — Could  not  save  hearers — With- 
ered rapidly — Went  inibrmally  in  1849  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church — The  church  in  1850  in  an  encouraging  position — Rev.  D.  A. 
AVallace — Installed — Energy,  diligence  and  faithfulness — Perhaps  a 
"pent-up  Utica  " — Removed  by  Presbytery  to  East  Boston  in  1854 — 
Rev.  Wm.  McLaren  installed — A  ripe  scholar — A  superior  Hebraist 
— A  terse  speaker — His  sermons  good — A  pastorate  of  nearly  twelve 
years — Reasons  for  resigning— Rev.  J.  R.  Kyle  installed,  June, 
1887 — Progressive  spirit  of  the  age — Imbued  with  it — Continued 
until  187 o— Providence  —  Successful  industries — May,  1848,  com- 
menced collecting  a  church — Official  acts — Organization  August  16th 
— Supplies  defective — A  change  of  connection — Dr.  Skinner — Rev. 
Jos.  Sandei'son — "Foolish  jesting" — Delilah  won — A  development 
not  of  early  New  England  training — Separation  came — Rev.  Mr. 
McGauchy — He  deceived  them — Returned  and  made  trouble — Left 
the  denomination,  but  still  made  strife — Years  of  confusion — They 
applied  to  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery — Committee  to  inquire 
— The  way  not  clear — Application  renewed  in  1857 — Committee  of 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  359 

inquiry — Petition  not  granted — Eev.  A.  Thomas — Remodelled — Came 
to  Lachine,  thence  to  Boston — Served  in  Providence  for  two  years — 
After  the  union  on  May  26th,  1858,  order  was  restored — Statements 
of  a  leader  in  the  ciiurch — The  venerable  Rev.  Dr.  A.  Heron,  a  healer 
of  their  divisions — December  5th,  1859,  Mr.  Jolm  C.  Robb  called — 
Ordained  and  installed  April  27th,  18(50 — Dismissed  by  Presbytery 
January  22d,  1874 — Presbytery  constituted  in  1854 — Twenty-one 
ministers  belonged  to  it  in  fourteen  years — Lowell — March  20tii,  1850 
— The  dance — The  pioneer  and  the  watchman — Public  worsliip  begun 
— December  1st — Organized — Gordon  called — Vain  talking — A  rural 
home — Under  conflicting  constraints  he  returned  the  call,  went  to 
Australia  and  returned — W.  McMillan — His  sense  of  official  duty 
defective — An  illustration — He  left — No  condensed  spiritual  vitality 
attainable — Tendency  of  events — A.  C.  Junkin — Commercial  depres- 
sion in  1857 — Released — "Owing  to  the  times" — No  other  settlement 
before  1868 — Taunton — Supplies — One  man — Removed — Discontinued 
— Holyoke — Supplied  above  a  year — Trans- atlantic  feeling  of  sect 
split  tliem,  and  Holyoke  was  discontinued — East  Boston — Noddle — 
In  1847  active  industry  there — The  wits — April,  1853,  a  station — 
Rev.  D.  A.  Wallace  in  1854  pastor — Attentive — His  theology  of  New 
England — Encomium — 1855  a  house  in  building — Opened — Chosen 
to  be  President  of  Monniouth  College — Leaves — Rev.  H.  H.  John* 
ston — He  was  given  to  change — Took  the  property  away  from  the 
Associate  Reformed  church — Destroyed  much  good,  and  went  to  the 
Dutch — A  new  element  introduced — Effervescence  bolters — They  and 
the  former  fragments  unite — Organized — Rev.  G.  M.  Hall  installed 
April  17th,  1865,  till  December '26th,  1867— Laivrence— In  1853  in- 
corporated— The  "  scuit" — How  commenced — A.  McWilliams — Began 
on  July  2d,  1854 — Rev.  S.  F.  Thompson  pastor  from  August  7th, 
1855,  till  January  29th,  1857 — Commercial  deprest^ion — Jas.  Diusmore 
from  October  18th,  1859,  till  September  15th,  1863— Their  religious 
interests  now  suffered,  and  Presbytery  dissolved  the  congregation — 
Hartford,  Connecticut — Supplied  after  February  23d,  1862 — Organi- 
zation ninety-four  persons  on  Mav  6th — Rev.  \V.  M.  Clavbaugh  in- 
stalled April  30th,  1863— Resigned  January  8th,  1865— Rev.  J.  M. 
Heron  installed  January  17th,  1866 — By  fever  lost  his  voice — Rela- 
tion terminated  December  31st,  1867 — South  Boston — Gathered  by  a 
prayer-meeting — A  station  opened  on  October  9th,  1864 — Rev.  W.  M. 
Claybaugh  settled — He  wanted  "  more  liberty '' — Dismissed  December 
26th,  1867 — WilkinsonviUe — Operatives — Ask  and  obtain  supply  be- 
fore 1858 — Derry — Death  of  Rev.  Mr.  Parker — Their  good  order — 
Presbytery  disappointed — Derry  only  "a  parish" — "Half  and  half" 
— Ichabod — Londonderry — Pastors — A  basis  of  aid — Fruit — Pinker- 
ton's  gravestone — Congregation  Presbyterian — The  pasto;-'s  choice — 
Deviates — Families — Devotion  in  them — Difierent  in  the  church — 
Dana  saw  a  Psalter  in  the  pulpit — Andover  to  teach  the  New  Eng- 
land primer — Changes  of  pastors — The  pulpit  losing  efficiency — 
Causes — Hood — Appendix — Hearers  of  four  clav^ses — A  modern  inno- 
vation— Charles  11. — Pilgrims — Edwards — Watts — Modes — Antrim — 
Two  ministers — Dr.  Whiton  genial — Rev.  Mr.  Bates — His  organ  and 


360  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

revival — It  abcated — His  death — Windham — ^Kev.  Laren  Thayer— 
Faitliful — His  ministry — Bedford — Rev.  Thos.  Savage — A  long  pas- 
torate— Peterboro — Rev.  J.  R.  French  dismissed  in  1847 — Rev.  A. 
Lamb  ordained  July  14th,  1847 — 175 — A  number  were  dismissed  by 
letter  in  1851 — Formed  a  Congregational  "  society  " — Lamb  dismissed 
in  1852 — Roll  down  to  sixty-seven,  and  no  pastor — Neivburyport — 
During  this  quarter  both  congregations  enjoy  ordinances — First 
church — Rev.  J.  F.  Stearns — His  early  history — Ordained  September 
16th,  1835 — After  years  accepted  a  call  to  Newark,  N.  J. — Rev. 
Jas.  Gallaher  a  supply — Rev.  A.  G.  Vermilyea — May  1st,  1850 — He, 
as  well  as  Dr.  Stearns,  was  a  faithful  pastor — Increase — Centennial 
commemorations — Building  rededicated — Dr.  Dana  "suggested  a  few 
thoughts  as  to  the  proper  manner  of  preacliing  and  hearing  tlie  gos- 
pel " — Succeeded  by  other  Y>revious  pastors — Proudfit  looking  at  the 
tomb  of  Whitefield,  said:  "America  well  entitled  to  his  remains  " — 
Vermilyea,  after  thirteen  years,  dismissed — Of  the  eighth  pastor,  Rev. 
R.  H.  Richardson,  we  know  but  little — /Second  church — A  human 
change — Dana's  opponents  became  his  friends,  and  call  him — The  la- 
bors of  his  riper  years  not  lost  on  a  willing  people — He  was  great 
among  Christians,  and  accepted  of  his  brethren — His  pen  not  idle: — 
To  him  the  truth  was  precious — A  remonstrance  forcible,  but  lost  on 
self-sufficiency — A  perversion  of  trust — After  eighty-eight  years  and 
one  month  on  earth,  "he  fell  asleep" — A  successor  to  sucii  an  one 
obtained— The  Rev.  W.  W.  Eells— Installed  July  14th,  1846— A 
specimen  of  his  way  of  "  handling  the  word  of  God" — In  this  avc  see 
the  man — His  teachings  so  verified  that  he  was  released  on  April  21st, 
1855 — Rev.  H.  R.  Timlow,  December  30th,  1856 — Pastorates  growing 
shorter — The  character  and  results  of  his  labor  we  can  only  infer,  as 
the  records  of  Presbytery  are  lost — April  21st,  1859,  dismissed — Suc- 
ceeded June  6th,  1860,  by  Rev.  Jas.  Cruikshanks — Preaching 
"another  gospel"  in  the  pulpit  of  Dana  and  Eells,  his  stay  was  short — 
Dismissed  August  1st,  1862 — In  his  best  estate  in  New  England  he  was 
only  "a  foreigner" — Those  detachecl  sojourn  where  they  can  find  a 
place,  and  in  modern  light  from  twelve  to  fifty-two  candidates  may  be 
heard  in  one  year — The  Rev.  B.  Y.  George  installed  April  27th,  1864 
— Cause  of  removal  on  September  26th,  1866,  unknown — The  Rev. 
Jas.  G.  Johnston  succeeded  him  in  three  months,  and  Avas  dis- 
missed September  22d,  1868 — East  Boston — We  have  seen  the  origin 
of  this  church  by  Rev.  H.  H.  Johnston  and  a  society  in  1858 — The 
Rev.  T.  N.  Haskell  settled  December  3d,  1862 — ^lliis  new  man 
coming  to  Presbyterianism  gathered  some  new  people — How  efficient 
he  was  as  a  pastor  we  know  not,  but  he  resigned  on  October  23d,  1866 
— The  Rev.  M.  A.  Depue  was  installed  on  July  11th,  1867,  and  re- 
signed July  12th,  1869 — Boston  proper — The  Rev.  A.  S.  Muir  arrived 
December  9,  1853 — He  was  intensely  Scotch,  even  to  the  Psalms  and 
paraphrases — Man  millinery — "  He  received"  a  call,  but  many  persons 
lost  confidence  in  him ;  it  was  not  unanimous,  and  he  went  to  Scot- 
land— The  ordination  of  elders  by  him,  the  Presbytery  of  Halifax  de- 
clared to  be  unauthorized,  irregular  and  void — A  young  man,  Ross, 
supplied  a  year — The  audience  dwindled — In  June,  1856,  congrega- 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  361 

tion  roted  to  unite  with  the  Presbytery  of  Montreal — Good  supplies 
given — The  Eev.  Wm.  McLaren  called  July  22d,  1857 — Rev.  Mr. 
McLaren  was  installed  and  remained  till  iS^ovember  28th,  1858 
— The  spirit  of  the  times  now  actuating  this  people,  and  they  nuist 
have  a  Kalloch  or  a  Stone — They  unite  December  1st,  1858,  Aviih 
Londonderry  Presbytery — Eev.  David  Magill  invited — He  put  away 
"Rouse" — Installed  over  a  society  on  July  14th,  1859,  and  on  March 
26th,  1860,  his  church  wns  organized  by  the  installation  of  two  elders 
— Beach  street  church  bought  December,  1859 — But  he  could  not  raise 
the  money  and  resigned  and  preached  his  last  sermon  there  on  Sep- 
tember 8th,  1861— The  Rev.  H.  M.  Painter  supplied  a  part  of  1862— 
Rev.  R.  A.  DeLancy  also  till  October  23d,  1864— United  then  with 
Oak  s  reet  Congregational  church,  and  Rev.  Mr.  Bixby  came  with 
1C9  members,  and  was  pa«tor  till  October  1st,  1866 — They  were  then 
supplied  for  two  years — T/wmpsonville,  Ct. — The  middle  of  the  century 
— Labor-saving  machinery — To  enterprise — Scotland  and  New  Eng- 
land extensively  covered  with  factories — Dr.  Dorus  Clarke — Watt  and 
Morse — Whitney — Around  the  factory  a  village  must  spring  up — 
Thompsonville  in  1828 — Carpet  company— Labor,  skill  and  integrity 
— An  agent  sent  to  Scotland — First  company  religious,  and  appreciated 
the  means  of  grace — Anarciiy  and  despotism — The  Rev.  Mr.  Robbins 
in  Enfield — In  1831,  Mr.  Mitchell,  a  Scotchman — In  1834  a  building 
— Professors  supplied  them  till  1838 — Applied  for  aid — And  refused 
— Redoubled  their  efforts — Dr.  Plarvey  now  preached  to  them — They 
would  not  adopt  his  polity — All  but  two  for  Presbyterianism — Organi- 
zation— Eighty-two  enrolled — This  the  first  excepting  Voluntown — 
House  built  by  the  con)pany — They  occupied  it  free,  but  did  not  obtain 
a  gift  of  it — The  pastor  a  scholar— The  groundwork  of  his  preaching 
— Three  sermons — On  the  true  basis  of  fellowship — Dr.  Tyler  criti- 
cised iw  him — Released — Eev.  C.  W.  Adams,  D.  D. — December, 
1857 — Not  like  Holden,  Massachusetts,  seeking  a  pastor  for  nine 
years  by  hearing  240  candidates — Such  a  gazing-stock — Dr.  Adams 
dismissed — The  company  failed — Good  intentions  unfulfilled — No 
work  for  two  years — Yet  prayer  and  determination  under  God  were  suc- 
cessful— They  prospered — Tariffville — Operations  there — A  church 
constituted — Presbytery  of  Connecticut  erected  October  loth,  1850 — 
Seven  ministers  composed  it — Eev.  E.  G.  Thompson,  of  TariflVille,  one 
— Failure  in  Tariffville  prostrated  this  place — Operatives  could  no 
longer  sustain  ordinances — Churcii  became  extinct — Hartford — In 
June,  1851,  Eev.  James  Ely  commenced  there — Ely  stated  supply — 
Mr.  Thomas  S.  Childs  applied  to — Came  to  them — From  Ireland  and 
Scotland — Earnest  Christians — Childs  settled  here — An  organization 
— Upper  room — A  church  edifice — The  pastor  has  to  sacrifice  most — 
So  here — Ordained  June  SOth,  1852 — A  burden  on  the  pastor  for  sev- 
eral years — Had  to  advance  all  his  salary  once — '•  Secular" — Presby- 
terian ministers  have  to  do  this  in  New  Enghiiid  often — His  health 
failed — He  preached  the  gospel  with  majesty — -Had  to  leave  a  debt — 
250  persons  received  by  him — Took  care  of  the  youth — Aided  men  to 
enter  the  ministry — The  customs  of  the  churches  overtook  him — 
When  an  instrument  was  employed  thirty  or  forty  withdrew — He  be- 


S62  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

came  a  theological  professor — Kev.  J.  A.  Hodge  installed  May  2d, 
1866 — "The  age"  becoming  material — An  anachronism — Had  now 
a  plain  brick  building — Mrs.  J.  W.'s  offer— Brick  building  sold — 
A  new  chapel — So  much  for  sixteen  years — JVat)  Haven — A  church 
received — Facts  not  the  means  to  know — Transferred^  in  hope — Ex- 
tinct— The  same  may  be  said  of  Beep  River — Organized  in  1856 — 
Stamford  organized  February  26th,  1853 — Its  FsLsiorn— Bridgeport 
October  16th,  1853— Eighty-two  withdrew — Keceived  by  Presbytery 
of  New  York — Dr.  Hewitt— Hinsdale  his  associate — Church  dedicated 
August  8th,  1855— Burnt — Rebuilt— November  4th,  1863 — Darien — 
Its  first  pastor  installed  March  4th,  1864 — In  office  in  1868— In 
Bridgeport — A  German  Presbyterian  church  organized  in  1865 — In  a 
few  years  dismissed  to  join  the  German  Reformed — New  Boston — Rev. 
R.  B.  Allen  was  called  in  1853. 

As,  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  the  doctrine, 
government,  and  principles  (excepting  the  force  of  char- 
acter transmissible  through  them  from  one  generation  to 
another,  by  the  common  laws  of  our  nature),  which  made 
old  Derry,  for  above  a  century,  a  praise  among  the 
churches,  were  fading,  so,  during  this  one,  they  passed 
into  oblivion. 

The  "  model  pastor,"  the  Rev.  Edward  Lutw^vche  Par- 
ker, ordained  September  l!2th,  1810,  was  on  Sabbath,  July 
14th,  1850,  called  to  his  reward.  In  viewing  his  congre- 
gation he  had  reason  to  rejoice.  It  contained  nearly  four 
hundred  families.  Their  "good  order,  intelligence,  solid 
religious  character,  harmony,  steady  progress,  and  the 
number  of  youth  they  educated  and  sent  forth  to  useful 
and  honorable  stations,  were  hardly  excelled  by  any  other 
town  in  New  England." 

On  the  17th,  amidst  sorrowing  thousands,  his  remains 
•were  deposited  wdth  the  dust  of  his  five  ecclesiastical  pre- 
decessors. The  Presbytery  supposed  that  they  stood  in  a 
relation  and  had  duty  to  perform  to  this  old  mother 
church  of  "  the  oppressed  Irish  brethren,"  and  were  soon 
duly  notified.  But  they  found  that  she  had  taken  counsel 
"in  the  plain  of  Ono,"  and  renounced  their  authority. 
About  1795,  at  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Br®wn,  "the  indi- 
viduals Avho  opposed"  Presbyterianism  withdrew,  "and 
were  incorporated  as  a  Congregational  society." 

"  In  1809  each  society  modified  some  of  its  peculiarities 
in  respect  to  church  government,"  to  a  kind  of  "  half-and- 
half,"  and  were  by  an  act  of  the  legislature  incorporated 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  863 

as  the  "  First  Parish  of  Londonderry."  And  now,  although 
eleven  ruling  elders  were  officiality  m  charge  of  the  churdi, 
as  was  supposed,  under  Presbytery,  yet  they  refused  alle- 
giance to  the  court,  which  was  confronted  by  the  Rev. 
Prof.  Park  from  Andover,  who  sent  to  them  and  liad  set- 
tled over  them  one  of  his  students,  the  Rev.  J.  AV.  Well- 
man.  As  has  been  noticed,  they  having  existed  as  a 
Presbyterian  church  for  130  years,  were  now  shunted  off 
on  the  theological  schemes,  usages  and  customs  of  New 
England — Ichabod. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  quarter  of  a  century,  the  Rev. 
Timothy  G.  Brainard  was  pastor  in  Londonderry.  He 
faithfully  occupied  the  ])osition  till  April  25th,  1855,  and 
was,  on  October  7th,  1857,  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  William 
House,  whom  Ave  find  in  the  pastorate  there  in  1868. 

Its  first  pastor  was  so  "steadfast  in  the  faith,"  that,  not 
by  a  governor,  a  president,  trustees,  ministers,  nor  by  the 
cash  itself,  could  he  be  induced  to  remove  to  the  hj^mn 
and  imitation  singers  in  New  York. 

At  that  time  the  pastoral  relation  was  not  placed  on 
wheels,  to  be  summoned  elsewhere  by  a  "  louder  call," 
and  those  sacred  feelings,  between  pastor  and  people,  sur- 
passed only  in  the  family  and  by  a  blood-relation,  were 
cherislied  as  among  the  most  precious  fruits  of  the  gospel. 
This  will  be  discovered  wherever  families  "  sing  psalms  to 
God  with  grace  and  make  a  joj^ful  noise  morning  and 
evening."  Their  pastor  ma}^  not  always  be  the  foremost 
man  in  all  the  earth,  but  he  is  "our  minister"  while  he 
can  say  "  I "  dwell  among  my  own  people.  So  it  was 
with  the  Rev.  David  McGregor  and  his  congregation. 

The  same  was  true  of  their  second  pastor,  so  long  as  he 
did  not  deviate  from  his  ordination  vows.  But  when  he 
not  only  led  his  Presbytery  into  a  "coalescence"  with 
those  who  had  onl}"  come  to  Presbyterianism  as  an  expe- 
dient; but  also,  in  1796,  to  his  Synod  attempted  to  vindi- 
cate the  conduct  of  his  co-presbyters,  stating,  that  ex- 
pediency should  outweigh  the  duty  of  going  up  to  the 
assembled  elders  after  apostolic  example,  liis  ministerial 
efficiency  was  not  increased,  and  while  the  flame  of  divine 
song  still  ascended  morning  and  evening  from  "  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  righteous  "  under  his  charge,  he  and  his  flock 
became  increasingly  assimilated   to  their  surroundings. 


364  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

If  they  sang  as  families  at  all,  after  the  manner  of  their 
forefathers  at  "  AVest  Running-brook,"  it  must  be  in  the 
same  words,  for  "imitations"  and  uninspired  hymns, 
whenever  and  wherever  introduced  into  churches,  pro- 
duce "  expressive  silence  "  in  households.  In  the  church 
it  was  different.  All  the  varied  arguments  used  by  those 
around  them  and  by  the  church  councils  with  whom  they 
associated,  would  constrain  them  to  change  the  fire  upon 
the  altar.  Hence,  Avhen  his  successor  was  inducted,  he 
"found  a  copy  of  the  Psalms  in  the  pulpit,"  but  by  him- 
self (he  saidj  they  had  never  been  used. 

As  the  seminary  at  Andover,  Mass.,  was  commenced  on 
the  theology  of  the  Now  England  Primer,  and  as  the  pro- 
fessors solemnly  vowed,  or  swore  to  teach  only  its  doc- 
trines ;  so,  among  Presbyterians,  obtaining  one  of  its 
graduates  for  a  pastor  was,  for  years,  considered  no  dis- 
respect to  Princeton,  N.  J.  The  ignoring  of  the  teach- 
ings of  the  catechism,  however,  produced  real  results,  not 
only  by  tlie  introduction  of  "  divers  and  strange  doctrines," 
but  by  its  influences  on  the  pastoral  relation. 

Hence,  we  see  that  the  first  two  (the  Presbyterian)  pas- 
torates, extending  from  1736  till  1818,  were  longer  in  dura- 
tion than  the  last  six,  from  1822  till  1879,  by  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  while  the  years,  in  which  this  church  was  with- 
out a  pastor  before  the  settlement  of  the  Rev.  William 
Morrison,  were  six,  and  from  his  death  till  this  date,  1881, 
"we  find  seventeen  years  of  destitution. 

Of  all  religious  instrumentalities,  tlie  pulpit  has  gained 
the  least  in  efficiency  in  the  last  fifty  years,  not  because 
faithful,  as  Avell  as  grandiloquent,  men  have  not  occupied 
it,  but  perchance,  from  the  effects  produced  upon  the 
family  as  the  training -place  for  those  who  ought  to  attend 
to  the  preaching  of  the  word  "  with  diligence,  preparation 
and  prayer."  Under  the  old  Presbyterian,  or  early  New 
England  style,  hearers  vastly  more  extensively  received 
the  word  preached  "  with  diligence,  with  preparation,  with 
faith,  with  love,  with  readiness  of  mind,  and  searched  the 
Scriptures  daily  Avhether  those  things  were  so."  Mark 
this,  "Therefore  many  of  them  believed."  As  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Timothy  Dwight  informs  us,  "  for  above  seventy  years, 
the  time  was  once  in  New  England,  that  few  persons  came 
to  the  years  of  understanding  without   professing   their 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  365 

faith  in  Christ  Jesus."  That  was  in  "the  days  of  the 
Catechism,"  when  the  mothers  were  the  teachers,  and 
when  the  Bible  was  read  dail}'  in  school  as  well  as  in  the 
family.  Then  the  dwellers  in  New  England  generalh",  as 
Hood  (Hist.  Music)  informs  us,  sang  the  Book  of  Psalms 
through  as  often  as  "  six  times  in  a  year,"  in  household 
worship. 

The  modern  "  customs "  have  another  indirect  effect 
upon  the  pulpit;  they  prevent  the  qualifying  of  the  mind 
for  proper  hearing,  just  as  family  worship  is  neglected. 
Hearers  are  of  four  classes,  by  the  "wayside,"  on  the 
"rock  "and  among  the  "thorns."  These  do  not  demand 
that  full,  thorough  indoctrination  in  families  which  "  the 
good  ground"  does,  and  in  themselves  the}^  never  have  it. 

In  order  to  be  profited  individually,  hearers  must 
"bring  forth  fruit  with  patience,"  they  must,  by  "prepara- 
tion," have  "an  honest  and  good  heart."  This  can  be 
obtained,  under  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  only 
where  they  seek  doctrinal  intelligence  and  "keep  it," 
(Luke  viii.  15.)  To  teach  such  a  people  and  preach  to 
them  Jesus  Christ,  is  an  easy  and  most  pleasant  duty, 
while  critical,  fastidious  and  carping  hearers,  having  no 
sympathy  with  "  the  truth  of  God,"  will  send  a  spiritual 
chill  into  the  heart,  and  frost  itself  into  the  lips  of  him 
whose  tongue  should  be  as  "  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer." 

Hence,  the  temptation  to  "prophesy  smooth  things," 
to  please,  to  be  popular,  is  too  great  oftentimes  for  un- 
sanctified  human  nature.  The  "  Spirit  is  grieved  "  by  the 
unfaithfulness  of  the  occupants,  even  wliile  the  pulpit 
professes  to  "  not  shun  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of 
God."  When  "  standing  between  the  living  and  the  dead," 
so  long,  as  the  messenger  of  God  is  constrained  by  any 
force  or  influence  to  please  men,  his  "  doctrine  cannot 
drop  as  the  rain,  nor  his  speech  distil  as  the  dew." 

Among  the  modern  "  usages  "  which  deteriorate  the  pul- 
pit, is  the  substitution  of  reading  for  preaching.  "  Preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature  "  is  of  heaven.  It  has  been  in 
every  age,  and  must  continue  to  be,  the  principal  instru- 
ment of  salvation.  It  is  not  only  scriptural,  which  should 
be  enough,  but  primitive,  used  by  the  apostles  and  re- 
formers, while  reading  is  entirely  a  modern  innovation. 
Probably  the  first  record  of  it  that  history  makes,  is  the 


366  HISTORY  OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

order  of  Charles  II.  forbidding  it  in  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, on  October  8th,  1674,  "as  a  supine  and  slothful  way 
of  preaching." 

''  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  "  never  read  their  sermons.  We 
first  hear  of  it  in  New  England  in  1708,  and  "  although 
Edwards  read  his  sermons,  he  lived  deeply  to  regret  it, 
and  to  bear  his  testimony  against  the  whole  practice  of 
the  literal  reading  of  a  sermon  fully  written  out."  "  He 
looked  upon  using  his  notes  as  a  deficiency  and  infirmity." 
Of  it  the  Rev.  Dr.  Isaac  Watts  says : 

•'  When  a  sermon,  however  good,  is  read  to  the  auditors, 
though  read  even  with  correctness,  it  may  in  some  degree 
resemble  speaking,  but,  the  resemblance  at  best,  is  faint 
and  distant ;  the  tone  is  not  the  natural  sound  of  our 
organs  of  speech;  it  is  still,  that  which  we  acquired  when 
we  were  learning  to  read,  and  savors  of  coldness  and  lan- 
guor. When  such  a  man  would  reprove  sinners,  he  only 
reads  to  them  a  chiding;  when  he  would  pluck  them  as 
brands  from  the  burning,  he  recuh  to  them  some  words  of 
pity  or  of  terror;  and  if  he  would  lament  over  their  im- 
penitence and  approaching  ruin,  he  can  do  no  more  than 
read  to  them  a  chapter  of  lamentation." 

For  full  writing,  and  committing  the  whole  sermon  to 
memory,  or  for  thorough  mastery  of  the  subject  and  the 
use  of  a  brief,  reading  is  a  poor  substitute.  It  is  a  foolish 
kind  of,  but  not  "the  foolishness  of,  preaching." 

In  Antrim,  N.  H.,  during  this  period  (1843-68)  the  con- 
gregation had  two  ministers.  Their  faithful  pastor,  the 
Rev.  John  M.  Whiton,  D.  D.,  after  a  service  of  forty-five 
years,  resigned  January  1st,  1853,  and  "  fell  on  sleep " 
on  September  27th,  1856.  He  was  universally  beloved, 
and  by  his  people  supposed  to  be  "  as  pure  and  good  as 
this  world  affords."  "  Many  of  the  hearers  of  his  last  ser- 
mon were  the  grandchildren  of  his  original  flock."  Their 
inherited  force  of  character  remained  with  this  people,  for 
they  were  not  yet  "given  to  change."  Where  a  man  is 
thus  held  "  highly  in  love  for  his  work's  sake,"  his  people 
will,  when  deprived  of  a  faithful  minister,  "  covet  earnestly 
the  best  gifts."  Consequently,  the  Rev.  John  H.  Bates,  a 
graduate  of  Vermont  University,  was  called  and  settled  as 
their  pastor,  on  the  16th  day  of  March,  1853. 

"As  a  scholar  his  power  commanded  general  respect. 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  367 

but  he  was  less  social  than  Dr.  Whiton.  For  eleven  years 
the  increase  failed  to  keep  his  membership  to  its  former 
standing,  but,  in  1864,  he  '  appointed  a  series  of  meetings,' 
and  '  more  than  twenty  members  were  added  to  the  church.' " 

In  1826,  when  their  house  Avas  opened,  the  only  musical 
instrument  was  "  a  bass-viol,"  but,  by  the  exertions  of  the 
pastor,  seven  natives  of  the  town  living  elsewhere,  con- 
tributed funds  enough  in  1864  to  procure  an  organ ;  and 
hardly  had  the  force  of  this  revival  abated,  when,  on  July 
1st,  1866,  Mr.  Bates  resigned,  going  at  once  to  the  desk  in 
Merrimack;  thence,  soon  after,  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  where 
he  died  May  10th,  1870. 

Windham.  The  Rev.  Loren  Thayer  was  ordained  here 
on  November  5th,  1845.  He  was  "faithful  unto  the 
death."  His  ministry  as  their  pastor  ended  on  April  25th, 
1866.  He  died  of  consumption,  September  19th,  1869,  aet. 
54  years. 

At  Bedford.  The  Rev.  Thomas  Savage,  installed  July 
5th,  1826,  continued  to  officiate  till  1850,  and  afterwards. 

Peterboro.  The  Rev.  James  R.  French  was  dismissed 
in  April,  1847,  and  the  Rev.  Henry  J.  Lamb  was  ordained 
on  July  14th,  1847.  The  number  of  members  in  1850  was 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five,  but  many  of  these  became 
Congregationalized,  and  during  1851  a  number  were  dis- 
missed by  letter,  who  organized  and  formed  a  State  society. 
This  "go  to,  let  us"  form  a  Congregational  parish  so 
weakened  the  Presbyterian  church,  that  Mr.  Lamb  was 
dismissed,  December  31st,  1852.  In  1856  their  roll  was 
reduced  to  sixty-seven  members,  and  in  1859,  Presbyte- 
rianism  became  extinct  in  Peterboro. 

The  Newhuryport  churches  continued,  during  this  quar- 
ter of  a  century,  to  enjoy  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel. 
The  Rev.  Jonathan  F.  Stearns,  a  native  of  Bedford,  Mass., 
a  graduate  of  Harvard,  a  student  of  Andover,  and  a  licen- 
tiate of  the  Woburn  Association,  was  ordained  and  in- 
stalled, on  September  16th,  1835,  by  the  Londonderry 
Presbyter}^  in  the  First  church.  After  a  ministry  of  four- 
teen years  there,  he  accepted  a  call  from  the  congregation 
of  Newark,  N.  J.  This  pulpit  was  then  for  some  time 
supplied  by  the  Rev.  James  Gallaher,  a  revivalist,  not  un- 
known in  the  West,  especially  for  his  "earnestness  and 
such  a  mass  of  it."    On  May  1st,  1850,  the  Rev.  Ashbel  G. 


368  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Vermilye  was  installed.  He  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Vermilye,  of  the  Collegiate  Dutch  Reformed  church  in 
New  York,  and  had  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  a  sound 
theological  training.  He,  as  well  as  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stearns, 
was  a  faithful  pastor.  In  the  first  six  years  of  his  pastor- 
ate his  annual  numerical  increase  was  twenty-two,  while 
that  of  ^Ir.  Stearns  was  fifteen. 

On  November  2<Sth,  1856,  the  one  hundredth  anniver- 
sary of  the  building  of  their  meeting-house  was  observed 
— as  the  centennial  commemoration  of  the  organization  of 
the  church  had  been,  under  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stearns,  in  1846 — 
by  an  historical  discourse.  The  building  was  now  somewhat 
modernized  and  repaired  throughout,  and  then  rededicated 
to  begin  another  century. 

The  venerable  Dr.  Dana  (then  eighty-five  years  of  age) 
opened  his  remarks  with  a  feeling  allusion  to  the  occasion, 
and  then  "  suggested  a  few  thoughts  as  to  the  proper  man- 
ner of  preaching  and  hearing  the  gospel,"  in  which  "days 
did  speak  and  the  multitude  of  (his)  years  taught  wis- 
dom." He  was  succeeded  by  other  previous  pastors  of  the 
church,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Proudfit,  and  by  the  Rev.  J.  F. 
Stearns,  who  had,  in  1850,  received  the  degree  of  S.  T.  D. 
from  the  College  of  New  Jersey.  Proudfit,  looking  at  the 
tomb  of  Whitefield,  said  : 

"As  my  eye  rests  on  that  monument,  let  me  recall  the 
way  in  which  it  came  there,  as  it  may  hereafter  be  a  tradi- 
tion of  some  interest.  I  was  calling  one  evening  upon 
Mr.  Bartlett,  when  about  to  leave  for  an  absence  of  some 
weeks.  He  told  me  that  he  had  heard  Whitefield  when  a 
bo}^,  and  had  never  forgotten  the  impression  made  upon 
him  by  his  preaching.  He  expressed  a  desire  to  have  a 
suitable  monument  erected  to  his  memory  in  this  church. 
He  asked  me  if  I  would  look  after  the  matter,  and  employ 
an  eminent  artist  to  do  the  work.  I  inquired  how  much 
he  was  willing  it  should  cost.  '  On  that  point,'  he  replied, 
'I  leave  you  entirely  at  liberty.  Let  it  be  something 
worthy  of  a  great  and  good  man.'  That  monument — de- 
signed by  Strickland  and  executed  by  Strothers — is  the 
result.  I  used  the  liberty  he  gave  me  moderately.  Had 
it  cost  ten  times  as  much,  he  would,  I  have  no  doubt, 
have  paid  it  cheerfully.  When  the  artist  presented  his 
demand,  Mr.  Bartlett  gave   his   check  for   one   hundred 


IN   NEW  ENGLAND.  369 

dollars  above  the  amount.    When  I  was  in  England,  the 

congregation  of  Tottenham  Court  and  the  Tabernacle  inti- 
mated a  desire  to  have  his  remains  removed  to  England ; 
but  when  I  told  them  what  Mr.  Bartlett  had  done,  they 
said,  that  if  an  American  gentleman  was  willing  to  give 
three  hundred  pounds  to  do  honor  to  his  memory,  Amer- 
ica was  well  entitled  to  his  remains." 

After  a  successful  pastorate  of  thirteen  years,  Mr.  Ver- 
milye  was  dismissed  in  April,  1863. 

Of  the  antecedents,  force  of  character,  sympathies,  and 
usefulness  of  the  eighth  pastor  of  this  church,  the  Rev. 
Richard  H.  Richardson,  we  know  but  little,  excepting  that 
he  was  installed  on  April  28th,  1864,  and  dismissed  in 
October,  1868.^ 

Second  church,  Newburyport.  We  now  notice  one  of 
those  manifestations  of  human  change  which  at  times  per- 
vades all  mental  operations  and  even  relip^ious  associations. 
In  1795,  a  party  opposed  to  the  Rev.  Daniel  Dana  as  a 
pastor,  had  so  agitated  matters  in  the  church  which  came 
to  the  Presbytery  in  1746,  that  rather  than  lose  them  from 
the  denomination,  they  then  received  a  distinct  ecclesias- 
tical organization,  and  were  now  known  for  full  thirty  years 
as  the  second  Presbyterian  church  in  Newburyport.  Al- 
though they  had  "  despised  his  youth,"  they  had  observed 
his  career  as  pastor,  president,  and  pastor,  and  they  now 
petitioned  him  to  take  charge  of  their  souls. 

The  generation  of  active  opponents  in  1795  had  now 
passed  away,  and  wiser  counsels  prevailed.  As  we  enter  on 
this  quarter  of  a  century,  he  had  "fought  a  good  fight"  of 
fifty-one  years  as  an  ordained  minister,  and  was  now  "fin- 
ishing his  course"  as  a  pastor,  while  he  still  "kept  the 
faith." 

■^Presbyterians  in  New  Hampshire,  from  Alonzo  J.  Fogg's  statistics 
of  1874:  'In  1850  they  had  13  churches,  6,500  seats,  worth  $71,000; 
in  1860  thev  had  16  churches,  6,980  seats,  worth  $83,462;  in  1870  they 
had  7  churches,  3,470  seats,  worth  $65,000. 

In  1876  they  had  15  congregations;  9  of  their  43  ministers  are  pas- 
tors and  stated  supplies  for  Presbyterians,  and  7  are  pastors  of  Congrega- 
tional societies  [Minutes). 

Also,  in  1880,  they  had  6  churches  in  New  Hampshire,  1  in  Vermont, 
1  in  Rhode  Island,  and  8  in  Massachusetts ;  16  congregations  and  2,911 
members ;   4  congregations  in  Connecticut.     In  1881  they  return  2,687 
members  in  the  Presbytery  of  Boston,  beside  those  in  Connecticut. 
24 


870  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

The  labors  of  his  ripe  years  were  not  lost  on  a  willing 
people.  They  under  his  ministry  had  become  more  "  rooted 
and  grounded  in  the  faith,"  and  increased  in  numbers. 
Such  a  condition  in  a  pastorate  was  a  good  time  to  resign 
it,  when,  as  once  "in  Judah,  things  went  well."  Accord- 
ingly, at  his  own  request,  having  "served  them  in  the  gos- 
pel" nearly  twenty  years,  he  was,  on  October  30th,  1845, 
released  from  his  pastoral  charge. 

The  autumn  of  his  life  was  spent  in  placid  contempla- 
tion, in  fellowship  with  God.  He  was  "great  among  Chris- 
tians, and  accepted  of  the  multitude  of  his  brethren,  seek- 
ing the  (spiritual)  wealth  of  his  people,  and  speaking 
peace  to  all  his  seed."  He  had  not  in  early  life  eaten  the 
bread  of  idleness,  and  he  now  did  "good  as  he  had  oppor- 
tunity unto  all  men,  especially  to  the  household  of  faith." 
Hence  his  pen  was  not  idle.  On  August  1st,  1847,  at  his 
native  place,  Ipswich,  he  preached  a  sermon  on  "  The  Faith 
of  Former  Times,"  in  which,  "without  fear,  he  puts  the 
question,  whether,  in  some  modern  modes  of  explaining 
human  depravity,  atonement,  regeneration,  etc.,  etc.,  there 
are  not  found  the  seminal  principles  of  gross  and  funda- 
mental errors  ? " 

In  1851,  on  April  30th,  he  preached  "a  sermon  addressed 
to  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry,  at  Bedford,  N.  H.,  on 
Matt.  ix.  15,  on  the  question,  '  Do  our  churches  at  large 
enjoy  the  presence  of  their  Saviour?'  If  so,  all  is  well. 
Let  them  be  thankful  and  rejoice.  If  this  presence  is  with- 
drawn, so  far  as  it  is  withdrawn  they  have  reason  for  hu- 
miliation and  grief  With  grief  of  heart  I  advert  to  that 
low  state  of  religion  in  our  community,  which  living  Chris- 
tians confess  and  lament,  and  which  gives  joy  and  triumph 
to  a  careless  world.  Has  not  the  Sabbath  lost  much  of  its 
reverence,  even  in  the  eyes  of  Christian  professors? 

"  I  advert  with  inexpressible  reluctance  to  a  practice 
which  increasingly  prevails  in  our  cities,  and  from  which 
I  pra}^  God  that  our  country  congregations  may  keep 
themselves  pure.  I  refer  to  the  custom  of  sitting  in  prayer 
— a  custom  sanctioned  neither  by  piety  nor  decorum — a 
custom  which  would  almost  seem  to  say  that  we  have  wor- 
shipped our  Maker  with  too  much  reverence  in  former 
time,  and  may  now  approach  on  terms  of  greater  familiar- 
ity the  High  and  Holy  One,  whom  prostrate  angels  adore." 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  871 

To  him  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus "  was  precious,  and 
with  "  a  reluctance  not  to  be  expressed,"  he  remonstrated 
with  the  trustees  of  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  in  1849, 
and  again  in  1853,  on  the  state  of  the  theological  seminary 
under  their  care. 

"  Having  been  a  member  of  their  Board  for  forty-five 
years,  he  viewed  his  responsibility  as  greatly  enhanced 
after  the  Theological  Seminary  was  annexed  to  the  aca- 
demic establishment."  He  was  "intimately  acquainted 
with  the  founders  of  the  seminary,  and  knew  their  favorite 
objects  and  designs."  He  now  states :  "  Every  professor 
must,  on  the  day  of  his  inauguration,  publickly  make  and 
subscribe  a  solemn  declaration  of  his  faith  in  divine  reve- 
lation and  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Westminster  Assembly's 
Shorter  Catechism.  He  must  solemnly  promise  to  defend 
and  inculcate  the  Christian  faith  as  thus  expressed,  in  oj)- 
position  to  all  contrary  doctrines  and  heresies.  He  must 
repeat  the  declaration  and  promise  every  five  years,  and 
should  he  refuse  this,  or  should  he  teach  or  embrace  any 
of  the  proscribed  heresies  or  errors,  he  shall  be  forthwith 
removed  from  office." 

Such  are  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution.  "  The  As- 
sociate Statutes  are  in  perfect  accordance.  They  provide, 
indeed,  an  additional  creed,  but  a  creed  in  entire  harmony 
with  the  catechism,  and  nowise  designed  to  supersede  or 
invalidate  it."  "  Such  was  the  design  of  the  founders,  a 
design  not  only  easily  understood,  but  impossible  to  be 
misunderstood,  if  there  are  words  in  the  English  language 
which  can  make  anything  plain." 

"  Our  duty  then  as  trustees  is  made  plain." 

"  Has  the  orthodox  character,  which  for  man}^  of  its  first 
years  it  maintained,  been  subsequently  preserved?  Have 
the  preachers  recently  sent  forth  been  champions  for  the 
doctrines  of  the  cross,  presenting  distinct  and  lucid  exhibi- 
tions of  human  depravity,  of  regeneration,  of  the  atone- 
ment, of  justification  by  faith,  of  the  nature  of  experimental 
and  saving  religion?  These  changes  are  defended  on  the 
ground  that,  '  if  these  doctrines  of  the  Catechism  are  not 
taught  according  to  their  proper  and  original  meaning, 
they  are  taught  in  a  mode  which  is  more  agreeable  to  the 
principles  of  philosophy  and  to  the  improved  taste  of  the 
times,'  but  the  Constitution  demands  that  they  should  be 


372  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  very  same.  It  is  with  real  pain  and  grief  that  I  make 
these  statements." 

Having  stated  criminal  violations  of  their  Constitution, 
as  if  the  actual  violations  of  it  by  the  prominent  professor 
were  (like  his  "  cunningly  devised  fable,"  that  "  original  sin 
is)  not  sin,"  he  says,  "  I  have  not  a  particle  of  personal  en- 
mity against  the  professor." 

This,  all  who  knew  him  would  believe.  After  this  date, 
in  1855,  he  wrote  his  introduction  to  "  The  Theology  of 
New  England,"  noticed  above.  On  his  last  visit  to  the 
writer  his  heart  was  still  "  trembhng  for  the  ark  of  God," 
as  he  declared,  "if  our  orthodox  churches  go  on  for  the 
next  thirty  years  as  they  have  done  in  the  past,  I  do  not 
see  how  godliness  can  exist  among  them,  as  there  will  not 
be  left  one  doctrine  on  which  it  can  l)e  sustained." 

He  knew  that  the  Head  of  the  church  "  liveth,"  that "  the 
walls  shall  be  built  again  even  in  troublous  times,"  and 
having  "  served  his  generation  by  the  will  of  God,  he  fell 
asleep  in  Jesus  "  on  the  26th  day  of  August,  1859,  having 
passed  one  month  of  his  89th  year  on  earth. 

To  succeed  one  so  "  valiant  for  the  truth,"  to  watch  for 
his  highly  favored  flock  and  "feed  them  with  the  bread  of 
life,"  the  Rev.  William  W.  Eells  was  called.  His  installa- 
tion took  place  on  July  14th,  1846.  As  a  specimen  of  the 
way  in  which  he  "  handled  the  word  of  God,"  I  quote  from 
his  sermons  on  Fast  Day,  April  6th,  1848,  from  IMatt. 
iii.  9 :  "Is  it  not  true,  now  as  then,  that  when  '  Jeshurin 
waxed  fat,  then  he  forsook  God  who  made  him,  and 
lightly  esteemed  the  rock  of  his  salvation?'  And  while, 
like  the  Jews  of  old,  we  cease  not  to  boast  '  we  have  the 
Puritans  to  our  fathers,'  and  pride  ourselves  in  their  char- 
acter and  their  works,  and  count  ourselves  the  favorites  of 
heaven  on  their  account  and  look  upon  all  the  great  mer- 
cies of  God  about  us  as  secure  through  them,  and  say  in 
our  hearts,  '  Our  mountain  stands  strong,  and  we  shall 
never  be  moved,'  may  it  not  be  true  after  all  that  we  have 
forsaken  the  principles  of  our  fathers  and  are  hastening  to 
use  up  and  to  consume  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  land, 
for  the  fathers'  sake  ?  And  if  this  be  so,  then  is  it  time  for 
us  to  hush  all  our  idle  boasting,  and  to  '  remember  whence 
we  have  f^illen  and  repent,  and  do  the  first  works,  lest  God 
come  quickly  and  remove  our  candlestick  out  of  his  jjlace 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  373 

if  we  repent  not ; '  lest  the  light  of  our  privileges  be  turned 
away  upon  some  other  nation,  and  we  grope  in  the 
darkness. 

"  They  suffered  no  foreign  authority  to  usurp  their  right 
to  teach  their  little  ones,  to  prescribe  how  much  or  how 
little  of  God's  word,  their  strength  and  their  salvation, 
they  should  impart  to  tliose  upon  whom  would  soon  de- 
volve their  burdens.  They  heard  the  Holy  Spirit  declaring 
that  all  '  things  revealed  belonged  to  them  and  to  their 
children ; '  and  who  were  they,  that  they  should  fight 
against  God  and  give  but  a  part  where  he  had  given  all? 
All — all  that  they  held  dear  to  themselves — the  Bible  in 
the  utmost  freedom  of  use,  and  the  Catechism,  as  a  com- 
mentary upon  the  Bible — all  that  strengthened  the  soul  in 
heavenly  wisdom  they  put  into  the  common  every-daj'- 
education  of  their  little  ones,  and  thus  obeying  the  com- 
mands of  God,  it  was  their  highest  aim,  even  in  the  times 
of  great  distress,  to  train  these  up  in  the  nurture  and  ad- 
monition of  the  Lord.  And  how  is  it  now?  Alas  !  every 
line  in  the  commendation  of  our  fathers  is  a  burning  sen- 
tence of  condemnation  against  ourselves.  That  church 
which  they  planted  in  prayer,  and  watered  with  tears,  and 
cultivated  with  assiduous  toil,  now  casts  off  its  tender 
fruit  to  ripen  on  the  unwholesome  soil  of  the  world.  Like 
an  unnatural  mother,  she  exposes  her  offspring,  almost 
without  care  or  protection,  to  every  evil  influence.  Yea, 
the  professed  people  of  God  are  upholding  and  strengthen- 
ing by  all  their  might  the  engines  of  infidelity  and  irrelig- 
ion.  The  church  has  suffered  that  duty,  which  she  alone 
can  properly  discharge,  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  state. 
And  as  the  state  knows  no  religion  but  that  which  is  com- 
mon to  all  its  component  parts,  so  it  can  teach  no  religion. 
And  that  education  which  leaves  out  the  religious  element 
is  essentially  an  ungodly,  an  irreligious,  an  infidel  educa- 
tion. It  virtually  depreciates  the  value  of  that  which  is 
omitted,  and  leaves  the  depraved  heart  unrestrained  to  fol- 
low out  its  native  hatred  of  God.  If  we  compare  our prin- 
a'ples  with  theirs,  it  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  very  little 
doctrinal  preaching  of  any  kind  is  found  in  the  pulpits  of 
the  present  day  in  this  land  of  the  Puritans.  A  sickly 
sentimentalism,  or,  at  most,  the  indefinite  and  indirect 
preaching  about  the  gospel,  is  set  before  their  sons.     This  is 


374  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

a  truth — an  awful  truth.  The  popular  theology  of  the  day- 
is  a  direct  contradiction  in  ever}^  important  point  to  the 
doctrine  of  our  fatlicrs." 

In  this  mere  outline  of  his  utterances  we  see  the  man  as 
a  worthy  successor  to  the  venerable  Dana,  and  his  teach- 
ings became  so  verified  in  his  surroundings,  that  he 
sought,  after  a  few  years,  a  more  congenial  field,  and  on 
April  21st,  1855,  he  was  released  to  labor  in  Pennsylvania. 

He  was  succeeded,  on  December  30th,  1856,  by  the  Rev. 
Herman  R.  Timlow.  Of  his  antecedents  (as  the  records  of 
Presbytery  are  lost)  w^e  have  no  definite  information.  The 
spirit  of  the  age  (as  noted  above)  was  now  becoming  more 
vigorous  and  pastorates  growing  shorter. 

How  far  lie  taught  "  the  same  things  "  with  his  predeces- 
sors, Avhat  tlie  state  of  religion  was  among  his  people,  what 
his  faithfulness  to  God  and  man,  we  can  only  infer,  for,  oh 
April  21st,  1859,  he  was  dismissed. 

Mr.  Timlow  was  succeeded  on  June  6th,  1860,  by  the 
Rev.  James  Cruikshanks.  He  wns  brought  (when  a  lad) 
from  Scotland,  but  the  little  doctrinal  instruction  which  he 
had  there  received  w^as  extensively  bleached  out  of  him, 
and  he,  after  a  course  of  study  in  it,  became  a  champion 
of  the  New  England  theolog3^  Being  thus  engaged  in 
preaching  "  another  gospel  which  was  not  another  "  in  the 
pulpit  of  Dana  and  Eells,  his  stay  was  short.  He  was  dis- 
missed on  August  1st,  1862. 

He  occupied  in  other  places  in  New  England,  but  not  as 
a  Presbyterian.  His  speech  always  "  bewrayed "  him. 
He  could  not  intone  vocables  but  with  a  foreign  peculiarity. 
In  his  best  estate  in  New  England  he  was  only  "a  for- 
eigner," and  he  emigrated  to  Wisconsin.  Demand  regu- 
lates supply.  Ministers  detached  have  to  sojourn  where 
they  can  "find  a  place."  Hence  to  obtain  a  hearing  in  a 
vacant  church  under  the  light  of  the  his'  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  is  at  times  difficult,  and  pastoral  settle- 
ments take  place  oftentimes,  at  least,  not  rapidly.  From 
twelve  to  fifty-two  candidates  may  be  heard  in  one  year. 
In  this  Second  church  the  Rev.  "Benjamin  Y.  George  was 
installed  April  27th,  1864.  Cause,  reason  or  occasion  of 
removal  we  cannot  give,  but  he  was  dismissed  September 
^6th,  1866. 

Demand  became  now  forcible^  and  in  three  months,  on 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  375 

December  27th,  1866,  the  Rev.  James  G.  Johnson  was  in- 
stalled. With  him,  among  the  pastors  of  this  church,  we 
end  this  quarter  of  a  centurv.  He  was  dismissed  on 
September  22d,  1868. 

East  Boston.  The  origin  of  this  congregation  by  the 
manipulations  of  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Johnston  and  a  "  society  " 
in  1858,  we  have  seen,  and  also  how  that,  after  his  de- 
parture, the  Rev.  T.  N.  Haskell  was,  on  December  3d, 
1862,  installed  pastor.  During  his  ministrations,  although 
the  thirty-seven  de  jure  owners  of  the  church  estate  were 
scattered,  and  none  of  them  (it  is  believed)  united  with  the 
*'  society  "  of  twenty-two  persons,  yet  as  a  new  minister 
usually  gives  a  new  impulse  to  a  congregation,  so  this  new 
man,  coming  to  Presbyterianism,  collected  not  a  few  new 
people.  From  the  days  of  Mr.  Johnston  they  were  under 
the  care  of  the  Londonderry  Presbytery.  As  the  records 
of  that  court  at  this  date  are  lost,  so  of  the  efficiency  of  his 
pastoral  work  we  can  sav  but  little.  On  October  23d, 
1866,  he  resigned.  On  April  1st,  1867,  the  Rev.  M.  A. 
Depue  commenced  as  a  stated  supply,  was  called  on  July 
3d,  and  installed  on  the  11th.  His  resignation  was  ac- 
cepted on  July  12th,  1869. 

We  turn  now  to  Boston  proper. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Rev.  A.  S.  Muir  arrived  on  Decem- 
ber 9th,  1853.  "He  preached  from  December  11th  till 
June,  1854,  at  the  Melodeon,  and  then  until  June,  1855, 
in  the  Freeman  Place  Chapel."  In  public  worship  he  ad- 
hered closel}^  to  the  Psalms  and  Paraphrases,  and  was  in- 
tensely Scotch.  Standing  in  an  ample  surrounding  of 
man-millinery,  he  stated  that  "the  silk  was  bought  from  a 
Scotchman  by  Scotch  people,  made  by  a  Scotch  tailor  and 
worn  by  a  Scotch  preacher,  and  it  is  a  real  Scotch  ^own." 
I  again  quote  from  his  church  "  memorial."  "  During 
this  time  three  elders  had  been  ordained.  A  call  was  ex- 
tended to  Mr.  Muir  to  become  pastor  of  the  church,  but 
many  persons  had  lost  confidence  in  him,  and  it  was  not 
unanimous.     He  went  to  Scotland  and  did  not  return. 

"  The  elders  ordained  by  him  also  lost  the  confidence 
of  the  church,  and  the  Presbytery  of  Halifax  declared 
their  ordination  unauthorized,  irregular  and  void.  For 
his  passage-money  to  this  country  and  back,  some  $400 
(previous  to  his  coming),  the  committee  became  responsi- 
ble." 


876  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANTSM 

"  The  Presbytery  sent  out  a  young  man  named  Ross, 
who  supplied  the  pulpit  for  a  year,  during  which  time  tlie 
audiences  dwindled  to  a  mere  handful.  In  June,  1856, 
the  congregation  voted  to  unite  with  the  Presbytery  of 
Montreal,  which  gave  them  good  and  regular  supplies. 
After  some  delay  the  society  was  received  into  connection 
with  the  Canadian  church,  and  on  July  22d,  18o7,  the 
Rev.  William  McLaren,  of  Amherstburg,  Ontario,  having 
received  an  unanimous  call,  was  installed  as  pastor.  He 
remained  till  November  30th,  1858,  doing  a  good  work, 
having  consolidated  the  worshippers,  established  prayer- 
meetings,  Bible-classes,  literary  meetings  for  the  young 
men,"  etc.,  etc.     (Hist,  of  Beach  St.  Ch.,  p.  5.) 

"  The  spirit  of  the  times  "  was  now  taking  possession  of 
this  people,  and  while  during  his  ministry,  sixty-seven 
members  had  been  added,  and  he  preached  the  gospel  in 
its  purity,  two  or  more  of  the  leaders  declared,  "  We  nmst 
have  a  Kalloch,  or  a  Stone."  This  first  beau-ideal  of  pul- 
pit holiness  and  power  was  then  finishing  his  course  as  a 
Baptist  in  Tremont  temple,  preparatory  to  wading  through 
the  mire  of  politics  in  Kansas,  to  tlie  pulpit  in  and  (under 
the  patronage  of  the  immaculate  Dennis  Kearney  of  ''  the 
Sand  Lots  ";  to  the  mayoralty  of  San  Francisco.' 

Sensationalism  now  became  the  governing  force.  Con- 
nected with  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  in  its  purity  and 
power,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  McLaren,  the  congregation  had 
hitherto  sung  only  the  psalms  and  paraphrases.  There 
was  too  much  "Scotch"  in  this  order  of  worship,  and 
"  the  church,  with  but  one  dissenting  vote,  decided  to 
unite  with  the  Presbytery  of  Londonderry,  the  vote  to 
take  effect  on  December  1st."     (/6.,  p.  5.) 

Before  him,  in  Canada,  a  wide  door  of  usefulness,  as  a 
professor,  was  opened,  which  he  has  for  above  twenty 
years  honorably  occupied. 

"  In  the  spring  of  1859,  the  society,  by  a  divided  vote, 
invited  the  Rev.  David  Magill,  of  Philadelphia,  to  the  pas- 
toral office. 

"He  was  installed  on  July  14th,  and  on  the  25th  of 
March,  1860,  the  church  was  fully  organized  by  the  ordi- 
nation and  installation  of  R.  K.  M.  Baynum  and  D.  D. 
Morrison  as  elders."     (lb.,  p.  5.) 

For   the  building,  purchased    in    Decemberj   1859,  on 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  377 

Beach  street,  and  opened  as  an  Old  School  Presbyterian 
church  on  the  8th  of  January,  1860,  it  became  apparent 
that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Magill  could  not  raise  the  money  re- 
quired to  pay.  Consequently  "  he  resigned  in  August," 
and  preached  to  them  his  last  se.inon  on  September  8th, 
1861. 

"  The  pulpit  was  acceptably  su^Dplied  a  portion  of  the 
year  1862  by  the  Rev.  H.  M.  Painter  of  Boone ville,  Mis- 
souri. The  Rev.  R.  A.  DeLancy,  D.  D.,  supplied  part  of 
the  time  without  remuneration  until  October  23d,  1864, 
when  an  union  was  effected  with  the  Oak  Place  Congrega- 
tional church,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bixby,  bringing  with  him 
109  members,  was  installed  as  pastor."  {lb.,  p.  5.)  He 
preached  his  farewell  sermon  in  Beach  Street  church  on 
October  1st,  1866.  They  were  then  for  two  years  depend- 
ent on  supplies. 

As  we  approach  the  middle  of  this  nineteenth  century, 
marked  changes  appear  in  social  life  and  in  the  varied  in- 
dustries. Railroad  cars  supersede  the  stage-coach,  steam 
propels  the  printing-press  and  gives  to  commerce  an  un- 
precedented impulse,  both  on  land  and  on  the  sea.  Labor- 
saving  machinery,  Avhile  it  diminishes  toil,  like  the  confu- 
sion of  tongues,  scatters  many  "  abroad  upon  the  face  of 
the  whole  earth,"  and  to  enterprise,  those  classes  of  men 
especially  give  themselves,  who  have  been  trained  to  know 
the  New  England  Primer. 

Hence,  both  Scotland  and  New  England  are  extensively 
covered  with  manufactories,  all  calculated  to  promote  con- 
venience, accumulate  wealth,  or  provide  embellishment. 

To  "  the  days  of  the  Catechism  "  we  turn,  and  we  find, 
that  the  "promising  circle  of  young  men  in  Derry,  N.  H., 
had  advantages  held  out  to  them  from  abroad,  which  in- 
duced them  to  leave  their  native  place,"  while  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Dorus  Clarke,  in  his  very  valuable  lecture,  entitled, 
"  Saying  the  Catechism,"  has  shewn  the  inward  life,  not 
only  of  the  town  of  Westhampton  eighty  years  ago,  but 
also  the  extensive  usefulness  in  their  generations  of  many 
who  stored  in  their  memories  the  logic  and  truth  contained 
in  this  "  form  of  sound  words."  To  it  Watt  and  Morse 
were  deeply  indebted.  The  invention  of  the  cotton-gin 
by  Whitney  opened  the  door  to  ease  and  wealth  to  mil- 
lions, and  prompted  the  utilizing  of  the  ungenial  soil  of 
much  of  New  England  for  spinning  and  weaving. 


378  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Around  the  factory  a  village  must  be  gathered,  and  the 
varied  appliances,  springing  from  (and  characteristic  of) 
modern  Christian  civilization,  in  due  time  appear.  In 
this  way,  in  New  England,  Presbyterianism  received  an 
invigorating  impulse. 

Tho7npsonville,  in  Connecticut,  "in  1828  had  a  dis- 
tillery, a  carding-mill,  a  linseed-oil  mill,  a  flouring-mill, 
one  store,  and  a  population  of  less  than  forty  souls." 
Through  the  energy  of  Mr.  Orin  Thompson  especially,  the 
"  Carpet  Manufacturing  Conjpany  was  organized  and  char- 
tered." 

Labor,  skill  and  integrity  were  now  required,  and  for 
qualified  weavers  an  agent  was  sent  to  Scotland.  The 
first  company  arrived  in  October,  and  those  who  came 
were  annually  followed  by  others.  These  people  had  been 
accustomed  to  worship  God,  and,  appreciating  the  privi- 
leges bought  with  the  toil,  sacrifices  and  blood  of  their 
fathers,  they  did  not  forget  that  "  Scotland  owed  all  that 
was  noble  in  her  history  to  Divine  revelation,  and  that, 
w^hen  found  without  the  feible,  anarchy  and  despotism  had 
ruled  and  ruined  her." 

They  considered  that  "half  a  loaf  was  better  than  no 
bread,"  and  waited  on  the  ministry  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Rob- 
bins,  the  orthodox  minister  in  Enfield. 

In  1831  a  Mr.  Mitchell,  a  Scotchman,  who  was  engaged 
in  teaching  through  the  week,  preached  to  them  on  the 
Sabbath.  After  his  departure,  they  returned  to  the  min- 
istry of  Mr.  Robbins,  from  which,  by  distance,  the  aged 
and  the  young  were  excluded,  especiall}^  in  winter. 

In  1834  a  building  w^as  erected,  the  lower  story  of  which 
served  for  a  school-room,  and  the  upper  one  for  a  church. 
The  professors  at  East  Windsor  supplied  them  usually  on 
Sabbath  until  1838. 

Being  poor,  they  applied  to  the  "  Connecticut  Home 
Missionary  Society"  for  aid,  and  could  not  understand 
wdiy  they  were  refused. 

The  reasons  might  have  been  two.  East  Windsor  was 
Calvinistic,  and  "  the  society  "  was  less  so,  and  could  easily 
see,  that  of  these  sons  of  the  heather,  it  would  not  have 
been  easy,  to  make  modern  Congregationalists.  Trusting 
in  God,  they  redoubled  their  efforts  to  sustain  ordinances 
and  sought  an  organization.     Dr.  Harvey,  who  had  been 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  879 

previously  a  Congregationalist  for  twenty-eight  years,  and 
who  had  now  preached  to  them  for  several  months,  sought 
to  have  them  adopt  his  own  poUty,  but  they  loved  the 
church  of  their  fathers.  They  could  not  believe  that  "the 
manner  in  which  Congregationalism  took  its  rise  in  New 
England  renders  it  sufficiently  divine."  {Christian  Ob- 
servatory, 1854.)  When  their  votes  were  counted  all  but 
two  were  given  for  a  Presbyterian  organization.  As  the 
man  of  old,  "w^hen  the  mountain  would  not  come  to  him, 
he  went  to  the  mountain,"  so  the  Rev.  Dr.  Harvey  became 
a  Presbyterian. 

A  petition  for  an  organization  was  forwarded  to  the  New 
York  Presbytery  (Old  School),  who  were  surprised  to  find 
"  a  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth,"  and  granted  the  re- 
quest, which  was  carried  into  effect  on  July  5th,  1839, 
when  eighty-two  members  were  enrolled,  and  on  the  6th 
four  elders  were  ordained.  Excepting  the  congregations 
of  Voluntown,  Milford,  Mansfield  and  Cornwall,  which  ex- 
isted for  a  time  during  the  previous  century,  this  was  the 
first  Presbyterian  church  organized  in  Connecticut. 

On  July  10th  the  Rev.  Dr.  Harvey  was  installed  pastor. 
Their  house  of  worship,  built  by  the  Carpet  company,  was 
dedicated  in  the  summer  of  1841,  and  in  1845  its  capacity 
was  enlarged  by  the  same  benefactors,  and  while  the  con- 
gregation were  permitted  to  occupy  the  edifice  rent-free, 
through  good  intentions  unfulfilled,  they  never  became  by 
gift  owners  of  the  property. 

Their  pastor  w^as  a  man  of  positive  character,  "fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind,"  "a  student  and  a  scholar. 
The  distinctive  features  of  doctrine  embodied  in  the  West- 
minster Catechism  formed  the  groundwork  of  all  his 
preaching." 

In  1856  he  preached  three  sermons  on  "  the  true  basis 
of  Christian  and  ministerial  fellowship,"  which  b}^  request 
were  published,  and  which  embody  (it  is  feared)  too  much 
truth  to  be  now,  one-quarter  of  a  century  afterwards,  ex- 
cepting by  a  very  few  individuals,  read  in  New  England. 
In  1855  the  Rev.  Dr.  Tyler  sent  to  him  a  discourse,  w^hich 
he  had  pubhshed  on  "  Human  Ability  and  Inability." 
To  this  he  replied  :  "  My  first  remark  is,  there  is  a  want  of 
affinity  between  the  doctrine  of  your  discourse  and  your 
text,  and  not  only  so — there  is  a  manifest  variance  1)6- 


380  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

tween  the  two.  My  second  remark  is,  your  doctrine  is  at 
variance  with  other  parts  of  your  discourse.  My  third  re- 
mark is,  the  arguments  by  whicli  you  attempt  to  support 
the  doctrine  extorted  from  your  text,  so  far  from  sustain- 
ing, do  not  even  reach  the  doctrine.  My  fourth  remark  is, 
that  in  the  face  of  your  doctrine,  and  of  various  passages 
of  your  discourse,  to  whicli  I  have  already  referred, 
3'ou  apparently,  if  not  intentionally,  concede  the  whole 
ground  in  question  by  saying,  '  My  meaning  is,  that  God 
does  not  require  of  men  what  they  might  not  do,  if 
rightly  disposed.'  My  next  remark  is,  your  reference  to 
authorities  in  support  of  your  theory  of  natural  abihty  is 
unsatisfactory.  My  next  remark  is,  the  doctrine  of  your 
discourse  is  in  discordance  with  the  language  and  teaching 
of  the  Scriptures." 

Thus  "  valiant  for  the  truth  upon  the  earth,"  he  contin- 
ued in  the  pastoral  office  until  April  28th,  1857,  when  at 
his  own  request,  owing  to  ill-health  and  the  weight  of 
threescore  and  ten  years,  he  was  released.  He  removed 
to  the  upper  peninsula  of  ^Michigan,  on  the  banks  of  Lake 
Superior,  where  he  died  February  4th,  1873,  aged  eighty- 
six  years.  To  feed  a  people  thus  doctrinally  trained.  Di- 
vine Providence  sent  to  them  the  Rev.  Carson  Wilson 
Adams,  D.  D.,  then  resident  in  Virginia,  who  assumed  the 
duties  of  the  office  on  the  first  Sabbatli  of  December,  1857. 
We  here  see  one  of  the  advantages  of  "sound  doctrine," 
viz.:  an  early  pastoral  settlement,  quite  in  contrast  with 
what  is  said  of  "  the  Congregational  church  at  Holbrook, 
Mass.,  which  has  been  seeking  a  pastor  for  nine  years, 
listening  during  that  time  to  sermons  from  two  hundred 
and  forty  candidates."  {W.  Star.)  No  people  familiar 
with  "  the  New  England  primer  "  ever  did  or  ever  will  be- 
come such  a  gazing-stock. 

On  June  1st,  18(38,  Dr.  Adams  was  dismissed.  Good  in- 
tentions unfulfilled  on  the  part  of  Orin  Thompson,  Esq., 
overtook  this  congregation  in  1851.  In  that  year  the  com- 
pany failed,  and  in  1854,  among  the  assets  which  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Hartford  company  was  the  Presbyte- 
rian church  property.  While  they  had  had  no  work  for  two 
years,  yet  j^rayer  and  determination  were  employed,  and 
as  the  blessing  of  God  comes  through  sacrifice,  with  not 
over  four  hundred  dollars  of  outside  aid,  the  property  was 
secured  to  the  congregation,  and  they  continue  to  prosper. 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  381 

Tariffville  in  1840  contained  less  than  four  hundred 
inhabitants,  but  finding  the  carpet  manufacturing  at 
Thompsonville  profitable,  the  company  extended  their 
operations  to  that  place.  One  establishment  erected  there 
cost  $900,000,  and  gave  employment  to  lYom  650  to  800 
operatives.  "  The  church  was  constituted  October  24th, 
1844."  In  1853  the  population  was  nearly  2,000.  On 
October  15th,  1850,  the  Synod,  out  of  the  Presbyter}^  of 
New  York  (  O.  S.)  erected  the  Presbytery  of  Connecticut, 
which  held  its  first  meeting  in  Thompsonville  on  October 
29th. 

Of  the  seven  ministers  who  composed  that  Presbytery, 
the  Rev.  R.  G.  Thompson,  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in 
Tariff'ville,  was  one. 

Built  up  by  similar  if  not  identical  interests  with  the 
company  in  Thompsonville,  the  failure  there  prostrated 
this  leading  industry  of  the  village.  Consequently,  de- 
prived of  employment  the  operatives  could  no  longer 
sustain  ordinances,  and  the  church  became  extinct. 

In  1851,  an  individual  of  another  persuasion  called  the 
attention  of  the  Rev.  R.  G.  Thompson  to  the  number  of 
Presbyterians  living  in  Hartford,  and  in  June  he  laid  the 
case  before  the  Presbytery  of  Connecticut,  then  in  ses- 
sion in  New  Haven.  The  services  of  the  Rev.  James  Ely 
were  secured  to  commence  the  work,  and  on  Sabbath,  the 
13th,  about  fifty  assembled  and  Mr.  Ely  preached  to  them 
twice. 

Mr.  Thompson  conducted  services  on  the  next  Sabbath. 
Mr.  Ely,  acting  under  a  commission  of  the  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Domestic  Missions,  became  their  stated  supply. 

Very  soon  application  was  made  to  Mr.  Thomas  S. 
Childs,  a  recent  graduate  of  Princeton  Theological  Semi- 
nary, and  a  licentiate  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  York,  to 
take  charge  of  the  enterprise,  and  to  them  he  preached  his 
first  sermon  on  the  24th  day  of  August.  The  congregation 
numbered  about  75  persons,  nearly  all  from  the  north  of 
Ireland  and  Scotland. 

They  had  neither  wealth  nor  special  influence,  but 
among  them  were  godly  and  earnest  Christians. 

Declining  a  call  to  a  pastorate  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
he  cast  in  his  lot  with  this  people. 

At  a  meeting  of  Presbytery  at  Thompsonville  on  Novem- 


382  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ber  4th,  a  petition  for  the  organization  of  a  church  was 
granted,  and  in  due  time  thirty-two  members  were  enrolled, 
two  elders  ordained  and  installed.  They  assembled  in 
their  "  own  hired  "  large  "  upper  room  "  until  they  were 
able  to  obtain  a  church  edifice.  The  psalms  of  the  version 
of  their  native  lands  were  used  in  public  worship  by  his 
hearers,  till  January  21st,  1852.  The  introduction  of  the 
Assembly's  psalmody  and  hymns  was  attended  with  some 
opposition  and  loss.     This  was  to  be  expected. 

In  due  time,  a  house  was  purchased,  and  as  is  often  the 
case,  in  such  an  enterprise,  the  pastor  liad  to  sacrifice  most. 
So  it  was  here.  Receiving  an  unanimous  call,  Mr.  Childs 
was  ordained  and  installed  on  June  30th,  1852,  and  the 
great  secuLar  burden  (as  well  as  the  spiritual)  fell  on  the 
pastor.  This  was  prosecuted  under  great  difficulties,  and 
continued  for  several  years,  and  at  one  time  he  had  to  ad- 
vance the  whole  of  his  salary,  to  meet  an  emergency.  It 
is  not  uncommon  to  hear  men,  even  preachers  of  great  pre- 
tensions to  holiness  and  zeal,  denounce  a  pastor,  who  views 
"  the  very  dust  of  Zion  dear  "  to  him  and  "  spends  and  is 
spent "  for  "  the  house  of  his  God."  Such  an  one  is  ready 
to  cry,  "  secular,"  while  he  is  too  slothful  or  lifted  up  with 
pride  to  assist  in  the  work.  In  his  own  way  he  "magnifies 
his  office."  In  order  to  success  in  the  Master's  work  where 
all  the  surroundings  are  hostile  to  Prcsbyterianism,  God- 
fearing-men as  pastors  in  New  England  have  often  to  do 
this.  Mr.  Childs  did  it,  until  his  health  failed  and  for 
years  afterward.  In  the  meantime,  he  preached  the  gos- 
pel with  a  majesty,  which  nothing  but  "  sound  doctrine  " 
could  produce,  until  the  autumn  of  1865,  and  while  he 
was  forced  to  leave  a  debt  (principally  for  repairs)  of  $2,000 
on  a  church  estate  worth  $25,000,  250  persons  had  been 
received  into  the  communion  of  the  church  during  his 
ministry. 

He  also  took  especial  care  of  the  youth,  aiding  and  en- 
couraging promising  3^oung  men  to  enter  the  ministry. 
"  The  customs  of  the  churches  "  overtook  him  in  1861, 
when  the  introduction  of  instrumental  music  led  to  the 
withdrawal  of  between  thirty  and  forty  members.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Childs  became  a  theological  professor  in  Hart- 
ford, and  afterwards  at  Wooster,  Ohio. 

To  the  vacant  church  the  Rev.  John  Aspinwall  Hodge 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  383 

preached  on  the  first  Sabbath  of  January,  and  was  in- 
stalled on  May  2d,  1866.  That  "  the  age  "  has  become  ex- 
tensively "  material,"  is  shewn  by  many  places  of  worship. 
In  their  structure,  while  entirely  to  future  ages  an  ana- 
chronism, Gothic  arches  have  become  increasingly  in 
building  (not  as  formerly  an  house  of  prayer)  but  a  repro- 
duction of  some  of  the  piles  of  "  the  middle  ages,"  called 
cathedrals.  This  taste  is  found  even  in  "  the  land  of 
steady  habits."  His  people  had  now  "a  plain  comforta- 
ble brick  building  well  adapted  to  their  wants,  and  capa- 
ble of  seating  some  750  people."  As  is  customary  on  the 
settlement  of  a  new  pastor,  it  required  some  repairs  and 
embellishments.  To  be  abreast  of  the  extravagance  "  of 
the  times,"  Mrs.  J.  W.  offered  $5,000  towards  a  new 
house.  This  offer  was  presented  to  the  trustees,  one  of 
whom,  on  finding  that  in  the  market  their  building  would 
bring  but  $15,000,  gave  for  it  $17,500. 

On  February  28th,  1868,  they  dedicated  their  chapel. 
So  much  for  seventeen  years  of  their  history. 

During  these  years  (from  1843  till  1868)  a  church  in 
New  Haven  was  received  by  the  Presbytery  of  Conn-ecti- 
cut  from  a  Classis  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  church. 

The  date  of  its  organization,  the  field  which  it  occupied, 
the  influence  which  it  wielded,  the  manner  and  time  of 
its  extinction  are  facts  which  the  writer  has  not  the  means 
to  know.  The  doctrine  and  form  of  government  would 
make  it  an  exotic  in  that  nursery  of  "  New  England 
theology." 

Being  remote  from  its  ow^n  ecclesiastical  kindred,  it  ap- 
pears to  have  been  transferred,  in  the  hope  that  it  might 
be  perpetuated  to  "  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith,"  but 
with  Tariffville  it  has  finished  its  course. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  Deep  River,  which  was  organ- 
ized July  27th,  1856. 

The  First  Presbyterian  church  of  Stamford  was  organ- 
ized by  the  Third  Presbytery  of  New  York,  February  26th, 
1853.  The  pastors  have  been  the  Rev.  J.  Leonard  Corning, 
April  19th,  1853,  till  October  15th,  1856.  The  Rev.  Robert 
R.  Booth  from  March  4th,  1857,  to  February,  1861.  Rev. 
D wight  K.  Bartlett  from  April  14th,  1862,  till  February, 
1864.  The  Rev.  Samuel  P.  Halsey  from  March  8th,  1865, 
to  February  7th,  1867. 


384  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Bridgeport  On  October  16tli,  1853,  in  this  city,  eighty- 
two  persons,  who  had  withdrawn  from  the  Second  Congre- 
gational church,  entered  into  a  church  relation,  and  re- 
quested the  Presbj^tery  of  New  York  to  receive  them  under 
its  care.  They  were  so  received,  and  their  first  pastor,  the 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Hewitt,  D.  D.,  was  installed  October  31st, 
in  that  year.  The  Rev.  Horace  G.  Hinsdale  was  installed 
associate  pastor  October  28th,  1862. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Hewitt  died  February  3d,  1867,  in  the 
seventy-ninth  year  of  his  age. 

The  first  church  edifice  was  dedicated  August  8th,  1855. 
It  was  burnt  and  rebuilt  in  its  present  beautiful  form. 

By  the  Fourth  Presbytery  of  New  York,  a  church  was 
organized  in  Darien  on  November  4th,  1863.  Its  first  pas- 
tor, the  Rev.  James  \V.  Coleman,  was  ordained  and  in- 
stalled on  March  4th,  1864,  and  continues  pastor  at  the 
end  of  this  quarter  of  a  century. 

In  Bridgeport  a  German  Presbyterian  church  was  organ- 
ized in  1865  by  the  Presbytery  of  Connecticut.  It  was, 
after  a  few  years,  dismissed,  to  place  itself  under  the  care 
of  the  German  Reformed  church. 

In  1853,  the  Rev.  B.  R.  Allen,  previously  a  pastor  in  a 
Congregationalist  church  in  South  Berwick,  in  Maine,  was 
called  to  the  pastorate  of  New  Boston,  N.  H.  He  was 
afterwards,  until  his  death,  pastor  of  an  orthodox  church 
in  Marblehead.  "Valiant  for  the  truth,"  he  reunited  with 
the  Presbytery,  so  that  if  voted  out  by  "the  spirit  of  the 
age,"  and  forced  "  to  go  West,"  a  certificate  from  a  clerk 
of  a  Presbytery  would  to  him  be  of  five-fold  more  value 
(as  his  compeer,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Campbell,  informed  me) 
than  a  dismissal  in  "  Congregational  form."  He  "  fought 
a  good  fight  and  kept  the  faith." 

i?he  church  in  Thompsonville  prospered  until  1845, 
when  they  found,  that  while  they  were  Presbyterians,  the 
circumambient  "  customs  "  of  New  England  must  receive 
homage.  A  town-meeting  in  Berkeley,  Mass.,  had  de- 
clared, in  1733,  that  "an  organ  is  an  instrument  of  the 
devil  for  entrapping  men's  souls  "  (Rec),  but  since  1827, 
the  orthodox  Old  South  church  in  Boston  (which  wanted 
but  one  vote,  in  1809,  to  carr}^  it  and  its  wealth,  with  all 
the  others  in  the  city,  into  Unitarianism),  had  led  off  to 
the  organ,  and  it  had  been  preceded  and  followed  just  so 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  38S 

far  and  so  fast,  as  "  advanced  thought "  had  diversified 
taste  and  increased  culture. 

The  mother  orthodox  oi-gan  was  built  at  the  above  date 
in  London,  and  set  up  in  Boston.  It  cost  $7,000,  and  not 
a  few  of  the  Congregationalist  churches  had  now,  in  1845, 
so  far  reached  manhood,  as  to  ''put  away  the  childish 
things  "  of  "  singing  psalms  to  God  with  grace."  Rejoicing 
in  the  pabulum  of  the  139  Psalms  "imitated,"  and  other 
"  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,"  they,  according  to  their 
wealth,  must  have  the  condiment  of  instruments.  The 
viol,  bass-viol,  or  cornet  did  not  cost  much,  and  were  usu- 
ally the  pioneers  to  the  soul-trap  of  the  Berkeley  men.  So 
it  was  here.  The  choir,  forming  oftentimes,  if  not  always, 
the  most  effective  force,  forthwith  petitioned  "  the  session 
for  permission  to  introduce  an  instrument " — "a  bass-viol, 
or  two." 

When  the  session  would  not  grant  this,  they  and  those 
in  sympathy  had  three  elders  added  to  the  session.  "The 
party  in  the  session  opposed  to  the  use  of  instruments  re- 
frained from  voting,"  and  the  choir  were  triumphant. 
This  flank  movement  was  lawful,  as  the  Old  School  Gen- 
eral Assembly  had  three  months  before  "left  to  each  ses- 
sion the  arranging  and  conducting  of  the  music."  It  was 
also  one  remove  towards  Presbyterianism.  The  rulers  and 
not  the  ruled  were  the  voters  whom  the  choir  governed. 

On  the  first  Sabbath  in  September,  1845,  "  a  bass-viol " 
was  "  promoted  "  (Judges  ix.  13)  opposite  to  their  pulpit, 
and  began  to  "  cheer  God  and  man."  The  new  movement 
was  commenced,  and  as  the  hymn  was  presented  on,  in, 
with,  or,  by,  the  "  thing  w^ithout  life-giving  sound,"  a  scene 
in  miniature,  similar  to  that  which  w^as  presented  on  May 
23d,  1843  (when  the  disrupted  ministers  left  the  Kirk 
Assembly  and  sang  their  psalm  to  the  tune  of  Balerma  as 
they  entered  Tanfield  Hall),  was  now  enacted. 

The  congregation  were  generally  seated,  the  choir  had 
placed  themselves  in  the  front  gallery  ;  and  as  the  violinist 
drew  his  bow,  and  the  holy  sounds  began  to  go  forth  in 
the  prelude,  the  senior  elder,  Robert  Galbraith,  who  was 
tall  and,  as  the  Scotch  say,  "  black-aviced,"  turned  his 
head  over  his  shoulder,  looked  at  the  artists  and  then  at 
the  door.  But  a  few  weeks  before  this  day,  the  annual 
subscription  for  the  support  of  the  gospel  had  been  taken, 
25 


386  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

and  as  he  found  himself  and  his  associates  vanquished  in 
"this  holy  war,"  he  withdrew  under  a  frame  of  mind 
known  only  to  those  whose  "  hearts  tremble  for  the  ark  of 
God.'\   (1  Sam.  iv.  13.) 

While  they  did  not  dance,  they  moved  to  and  from  the 
music,  and  in  a  few  minutes  above  four  hundred  dollars) 
of  the  salary  was  outside  of  the  church.  A  meeting  was 
called  for  the  next  evening,  September  8th.  To  one,  held 
on  the  11th,  a  paper,  setting  forth  their  grievances,  was 
reported,  and  on  the  15th  they  formed  a  "society"  for 
worship,  appointed  a  committee  to  apply  for  preacliing  to 
the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  of  New  York,  began  a 
subscription  to  defray  expenses  and  j^rovided  for  a  weekly 
prayer-meeting.  On  the  10th  of  October  they  asked  for  an 
organization.  This  paper  came  before  that  court  Decem- 
ber 9th.  The  Rev.  William  McLaren,  then  of  New  York, 
was  appointed  to  organize  on  the  22d.  Sixty-four  certifi- 
cates were  presented,  and  ten  were  admitted  on  profession. 
Four  elders  were  installed,  and  on  December  23d,  1845, 
the  second  Presbyterian  church  in  that  town  had  "  a  name 
to  live."  They  were  "  a  peculiar  people."  They  had  en- 
joyed their  Bibles  and  their  catechisms,  and  the  "sweet 
psalms  "  in  their  fjimilies,  but,  not  as  yet,  these  last  for 
seventeen  years  in  the  sanctuary. 

This  "anatomy  of  the  soul"  (CaL)  went  to  the  very 
depths  of  their  emotions  when  the  first  psalm  in  their  ser- 
vice of  song,  the  89th,  was  announced — "God's  mercies  I 
will  ever  sing."  As  ^Ir.  McLaren  read  his  selection  and 
repeated  this  line,  their  feelings  were  poured  forth  in  tears. 
The  aged  and  the  middle-aged,  men  and  women,  wept 
through  the  first  stanza.  They  then  "sang  with  the  spirit 
and  with  the  understanding,  although,  probably,  not  with 
taste  and  harmony."  To  them,  for  many  years,  the  Con- 
necticut had  been  as  "  the  rivers  of  Babylon  "  were  to  the 
captive  Jews  in  their  day.  But  now  the  scene  was  re- 
versed. After  the  use  for  seventeen  years  of  the  songs  of 
the  land,  they  could  now  pour  out  their  souls  unto  Jeho- 
vah, and  express  to  him,  as  "  the  fruit  of  their  lips,"  their 
every  conscious  emotion  in  his  own  hymns.  They  were 
"merry,"  and  few  now  can  approximate  the  appreciation 
with  which  they  sang  as  they  "  went  on  their  way  re- 
joicing." 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  887 

By  the  appointment  of  Presbytery  the  Rev.  Peter  Gor- 
don preached  to  them  from  January  until  May,  1S46. 
This  separation  from  the  other  church  was  not  temporary, 
"  The  determined  spirit  of  one  party  and  the  decided  con- 
victions of  the  other,  made  an  agreement  impossible." 

In  building  an  house  of  worship,  they  found  no  sympa- 
thy at  first  from  the  company,  nor  from  those  around 
them  ;  even  admission  for  the  measurement  of  the  first 
church  building  was  refused  to  their  committee. 

They  formed  a  class  of  operatives,  which  the  corporation 
could  not  advantageously  spare,  and  for  the  nominal  sum 
of  one  dollar  from  them  they  afterwards  obtained  a  lot. 
Their  building  was  opened  for  worship  on  August  31st, 
1846.  A  call  extended  to  the  Rev.  P.  Gordon  was  by 
him,  on  June  18th,  accepted. 

Thus,  within  a  year  after  the  first  tune  was  played  to 
please  those  who  had,  as  they  said,  "  denied  themselves  the 
pleasure  to  accommodate  you,"  *  an  organized  church  had 
built  a  good  meeting-house,  called  a  pastor  on  a  salary  of 
$500,  and  had  added  more  than  twenty  to  its  membership. 
Mr.  Gordon  continued  pastor  of  the  church  until  May  11th, 
1851,  and  130  persons  were  admitted  during  this  period. 
In  that  year  the  carpet  company  failed.  The  mills  were 
closed  for  nearly  two  years,  so  that  many  had  to  go  else- 
where for  subsistence.  Though  thirty  were  admitted  to  the 
church  in  the  next  three  years,  when  they  had  no  pastor, 
3^et  the  increase  was  less  than  the  offsets  by  deaths  and  re- 
movals. ''  The  bread  of  life  "  was,  however,  to  them  pre- 
cious, and  while  they  honored  the  faces  of  five  elders  who 
had  great  boldness  in  the  faith,  to  enjoy  it  in  the  midst  of 
all  their  trials,  they  called  Mr.  James  McLaughlin  and 
promised  to  him  a  salary  of  $600. 

This  he  accepted,  and  on  the  12th  of  September,  1854,  he 
became  their  pastor.  During  his  incumbency  of  less  than 
three  years,  seventy-four  were  "  added  to  the  church."  The 
spiritual  condition  of  his  flock  was  good,  yet,  on  June  10th, 
1857,  at  his  own  request.  Presbytery  released  him,  and  he 
returned  to  Ireland. 

*  Here  was  an  honest  confession,  that,  in  playing  their  bass  viols  and 
organ,  it  was  not  for  the  glory  of  God,  nor  the  honor  of  Christ,  nor  the 
salvation  of  souls,  but  for  their  own  personal  and  social  "  pleasure." 
"  We  denied  ourselves  the  pleasure,  to  accommodate  you,"  that  is,  to  ac- 
commodate your  consciences. 


388  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

On  July  17th,  1858,  the  Rev.  John  M.  Heron  was  called, 
and  on  November  17th  he  was  installed.  At  the  opening 
of  the  civil  war  not  a  few  of  the  3^oung  and  middle-aged 
men  enlisted.  Two  of  the  merchants  in  the  village  belonged 
to  the  church.  One  of  these  sold  liquor,  which  brought  a 
standing  discord  between  him  and  the  pastor.  The  other, 
foreseeing  that  he  would  have  to  sell  to  the  unemplo3'ed, 
now  urged  the  pastor  to  resign,  as  the  war  would  be  of  long 
duration  and  the  people  "could  not,"  as  he  said,  "support 
preaching."  He  brought  an  elder  to  press  this  argument 
upon  the  pastor,  and  they  were  successful.  While  he  sav\r 
that  the  dealer  had  not  a  little  self-interest  in  the  counsel 
and  persuasion  which  he  tendered  to  him,  his  nature  and 
principles  constrained  him  to  "  rather  suffer  the  wrong." 
Whether  wisely  or  unwisely,  the  congregation,  although 
with  great  reluctance,  concurred  with  him  in  asking  his  re- 
lease on  the  11th  day  of  June,  1861.  Mr.  Heron  was  a  logi- 
cal, terse  and  sound  doctrinal  preacher,  rather  than  a  popu- 
lar one.  He  could  not  "  prophesy  smooth  things."  Under 
his  ministry  sixty-one  were  admitted  to  the  church. 

While  "  we  know,  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  " 
under  the  "Chief  Shepherd  ;  "  to  human  wisdom,  when  we 
look  back  on  the  years  of  anxious  and  disheartening 
struggle,  which  followed  their  separation,  it  would  seem 
better  that  he  had  remained.  He  was  "  much  respected  by 
his  people,"  and  their  period  of  trial  and  darkness,  which 
then  began,  was  so  long  that  only  those  who  loved  the 
church  and  its  principles  could  be  expected  to  remain. 

In  January,  1864,  they  called  the  Rev.  John  Jamieson. 
Their  call  he  did  not  accept.  A  similar  fate  awaited  their 
call  pfiade  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Torrence,  on  September  19th,  1865. 
They  were  apparently  more  successful  with  the  Rev.  W.  B. 
Sutherland,  who  was  especially  a  fine  speaker,  and  was  in- 
stalled on  July  18th,  1866.  In  him  they  did  not  "entertain 
an  angel,"  but  a  sinner,  that  "  destroyed  much  good." 

For  a  season  he  concealed  his  slavery  to  strong  drink,  but 
"it  could  not  be  kept  secret."  Some  withdrew,  and  the 
wonder  is,  that,  after  the  trials  of  the  past  few  years,  the 
church  did  not  ask  to  be  disbanded.  After  some  ten  months, 
notwithstanding  official  admonitions,  vows  and  pledges,  he 
had  to  resign.  The  pulpit  was  declared  vacant  on  June  1st, 
1867. 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  389 

The  congregation  asked  supply,  which  was  granted,  and 
a  call  was,  on  December  26th,  1(^67,  presented  to  the  Eev. 
George  M.  Hall,  which,  on  April  7th,  1868,  he  accepted. 

He  was  not  only  above  sixty  years  of  age  then,  but  also 
enfeebled  by  a  lingering  disease ;  yet  he  was  measurably 
successful.  "  He  was  an  earnest,  excellent  man.  He  was 
noted  as  a  preacher,  for  regularity  and  clearness  in  the 
framing  of  his  discourses  and  impressiveness  of  delivery." 
During  his  ministry  of  four  and  a  half  years,  sixty-two 
were  admitted  to  the  church.  His  resignation  took  effect 
on  June  30th,  1872. 

As  we  have  seen  the  manner  in  which  Thompsonville 
congregation  was  gathered,  so,  during  an  appointment  there, 
as  supply,  in  1846,  the  writer  embraced  the  opportunity  of 
visiting  Boston.  In  it  then  the  name  Presbyterian  had 
been  extinct  for  seventeen  years.  And  so  it  would  have 
been  left,  had  it  not  been  for  the  request  of  a  man  who  had 
previously  been  a  slave  of  strong  drink,  but  was  now  an 
abstainer.  He  requested  "a  Scotch  praeching,"  for  he  had 
heard  none*  for  two  years.  Consequently,  a  small  hall 
(connected  with  the  then  "  Lowell  Institute ")  was  ob- 
tained and  occupied  for  public  worship  on  Friday  even- 
ing, March  6th. 

The  persons  convened  were  to  each  other  nearly  all 
strangers.  A  common  impulse,  however,  actuated  them, 
as 

"  Those  strains,  which  once  did  sweet  in  Zion  glide," 

and  which  had  made  their  parental  habitations  vocal,  were 
now  employed,  as  they  had  not  been  in  Boston  (excepting  by 
Mr.  Winslow  and  other  Sandemanians)  since  August,  1786, 
and  they  desired  to  know  where  and  how  they  could  be 
statedly  supplied.  To  an  application  addressed  through  Rev. 
Dr.  McCarrol,  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  of  New 
York,  eleven  names  Avere  subscribed,  but  from  it  no  benefit 
was  enjoyed.  In  May,  from  them  two  letters  were  received, 
stating  that  if  anything  was  to  be  done,  to  them  the  writer 
must  return,  and  they  would  "  stand  by  him,"  and  they 
did  so.  Arriving  on  the  20th  of  May,  a  place  to  meet  in 
became  necessary.  It  was  "Anniversary  week,"  and  church? 
goers  were  in  the  city  by  thousands,  so  that  for  the  time 
being  some  halls  were  occupied  on  the  occasion  as  dormi- 


390  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

tories.  By  perseverance,  under  the  Divine  blessing,  we 
obtained,  on  the  seventeenth  application,  the  use  of  a  small 
hall  at  36  Washington  street.  We  advertised.  The  strong 
man,  Congregationalism,  had  long  been  quiet  in  his  pos- 
session of  "  the  Mount  Zion  of  the  whole  earth  "  (so  called 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  King,  of  Dublin),  and  now  he  "awoke  "  to 
zeal,  if  not  "  to  righteousness." 

On  June  4th  the  Puritan  Recorder,  the  best  of  New  Eng- 
land papers,  put  on  record : 

'■^ Preshyterianism  in  Boston. — On  Saturday  it  was  an- 
nounced that  there  would  be  public  worship  after  the 
Presbyterian  form,  at  Chapman  place  in  School  street,  and 
all  friendly  to  the  collection  of  a  Presbyterian  church  in 
this  city  were  invited  to  attend.  Whether  all  such  at- 
tended, and  who  they  are,  we  are  not  informed." 

In  another  paper  "  New  York  "  was  represented  as  "  su- 
perintending Boston  " — an  audacious  interference !  This 
metropolis,  in  1846,  contained  about  130,000  inhabitants. 
Some  of  the  evangelical  pulpits  were  then  occupied  by  men 
of  distinction.  To  omit  mentioning  others,  such  among 
the  orthodox  were  Drs.  Blagden,  Adams,  Kirk,  Waterbury, 
and  especially  the  Rev.  W.  Rogers,  a  native  of  Guernsey. 
He  was  then  a  force  in  the  pulpit  there,  his  large  church 
in  Winter  street  being  usually  packed ;  Drs.  Sharpe,  Neale 
and  Baron  Stowe,  Calvinists,  among  the  Baptists;  Bishop 
Eastburn  and  Dr.  Vinton  among  the  Episcopalians.  Beside 
those  held  statedly  in  the  other  churches,  the  Old  South 
prayer  meeting,  at  eight  a.  m.,  was  daily  open  to  all.  A 
young  ladies'  association  met  monthly,  or  oftener,  in  which 
prayer  was  offered;  and  among  other  practical  works,  some 
of  the  sermons  of  the  Rev.  James  Hamilton,  of  London, 
were,  with  his  sanction,  read.  Smoking  in  the  streets  was 
extensively  prohibited,  and  in  one  instance  a  profane 
swearer  was  fined.  Drunkenness  had  not  yet  flooded  the 
city,  and  lager  beer  was  then  unknown  in  it.  Our  modern 
gambling  "  hells  "  were  watched  closely  by  the  compara- 
tively small  force  of  police.  "  The  South  cove  "  had  then 
a  limited  growth  of  "  young  Arabs,"  and  but  seldom  was 
the  Irish  heard  in  the  streets.  Still,  vice  was  increasing. 
The  later  occupants  of  the  Huguenot  Presbyterian  meet- 
ing-house had,  in  1843,  ramified  into  three  papal  churches. 
With  them  and  their  increase  a  bishop  was  nestled  down, 


IN   NEW  ENGLAND.  391 

while  his  "sisters  "  from  the  Somerville  nunnery  were  com- 
passing the  unwary  to  make  proselytes. 

As  he  had  been  instrumental  in  the  banishment  beyond 
the  Mississippi  of  the  pantheist,  Abner  Kneeland,  but  a 
few  years  before,  Hosea  Ballou  was  now  a  force  in  Boston, 
and  the  head  of  nearly  one  thousand  societies  of  Univer- 
salists  in  New  England,  while  Theodore  Parker  was  diligent 
in  propagating  in  his  "twenty-eighth  Congregational  so- 
ciety "  German  Transcendentalism  ;  and  for  its  nearly  one 
hundred  and  eighty  societies  in  Massachusetts,  Unitarian- 
ism  had  wrested  about  ninety-six  of  these  and  their  church 
estates  from  the  Trinitarians,  by  their  parish  pine  board 
(pewj  patronage.  Amidst  these,  beside  others,  who,  under 
the  presence  and  by  the  working  of  "  the  prince  of  the 
power  of  the  air,"  formed  the  lower  grades  of  civilization, 
we  began  to  gather  those  who  were  then  "  strangers  in  a 
strange  land."  Such  was  the  competing  zeal  of  the  city 
missionaries  of  the  leading  sects  in  Boston,  that  in  it  we 
found  but  three  families  of  Presbyterians,  which  had  not 
been  visited.  The  others  did  not  all,  however,  remain 
among  their  new  friends.  Where  the  Shorter  Catechism 
and  the  Psalms  had,  by  parental  fidelity,  been  ingrained 
into  their  minds  in  their  youth,  the  choice  of  the  worship 
of  the  God  of  their  fathers,  when  contrasted  with  "the 
customs  of  the  churches "  in  New  England  (excepting 
where  they  had  become  entangled  with  social  alliances),  it 
was  not  difficult  to  make. 

Servants  were  sometimes  allured  by  their  employers. 
"  Sarah,  if  you  don't  go  to  my  church,  you  may  leave  my 
house."  "Get  who  you  please,  this  day  week,  Mrs.  D. ;  I 
will  go  to  my  own  church,"  was  the  reply  of  a  "  Derry  " 
girl.  It  had  a  more  business  air  than  the  answer  of  a 
"  lassie,"  who,  on  return  from  church,  was  asked  by  her 
employer  how  she  liked  the  meeting.  She  had  been 
amongst  those  who  were  entertained  with  the  organ,  and 
pensively  replied :  "  It's  an  awfu'  way  to  spend  the  Sab- 
bath, yon." 

A  case  I  mention  where  the  persons  were  not  servants. 
^Irs.  T.  attended  the  services  at  Park  street  church,  enter- 
ing after  the  organ  had  ceased  playing,  and  leaving  when 
the  sermon  was  done.  Her  husband,  a  man  "  mighty  in 
the  Scriptures,"  attended  at  Essex  street  church,  made  ap- 


392  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

plication  for  fellowship,  was  informed  by  the  pastor  that 
he  and  the  examining  committee  were  now  ready  to  receive 
him,  and  replied,  "  Dr.  Adams,  I  am  glad  to  hear  that,  but 
I  have  two  questions  to  ask,  to  which  I  request  positive 
answers."  Assent  was  given.  "  Do  you  believe  in  the  im- 
putation of  the  guilt  of  Adam's  first  sin  to  his  posterity  ?  " 
"  I  do  not."  "  Do  you  believe  in  the  imputation  of  Christ's 
righteousness  to  his  people  ?  "  "I  do  not."  "  Then  you 
can  never  be  my  minister."  Mr.  T.  afterwards  served  un- 
til the  day  of  his  death,  nearly  twenty  years,  as  a  ruling 
elder  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Boston.  He  did 
not  "  despise  his  birthright." 

An  impediment  was,  during  summer,  encountered.  The 
prejudice  of  race  was  invoked.  There  exists  two  sides  to 
the  "  Irish  sea,"  and  although  it  is  only  twelve  miles  from 
the  Mull  of  Kintyre,  in  Scotland,  to  Fairhead,  in  Ireland, 
yet  the  Scotch  and  Irish  are  not  much  nearer  to  each  other 
in  their  feelings  of  nationality  than  are  the  two  ends  of  a 
fiddle  to  each'otlier.  When,  on  July  25th,  the  pioneer  re- 
turned with  his  family,  he  found  this  prejudice  in  full 
operation.  With  their  preachers  (and  justly)  generally, 
both  are  enamoured ;  and  as  there  was  now  a  prospect  of 
the  gathering  of  a  Presbyterian  church,  individuals  of  each 
people  aimed  to  have  one  from  their  own  side  of  the  Irish 
sea.  While  on  the  one  side,  as  they  debated  the  matter 
from  week  to  week,  when  one  man  wanted  to  "have 
preaching  in  Boston  of  an  high  order,  yes  (said  he),  as 
high  as  the  top  of  the  State  House,"  he  was  answered  that 
"  the  preaching  which  they  were  then  hearing  might  do  in 
Scotland,  or  out  West,  but  it  would  never  do  in  Boston." 

This  speech,  made  by  an  orthodox  adherent,  if  not  a 
member,  an  admirer  of  Channing,  while  in  harmony  with 
the  other  as  to  the  homage  due  to  the  sensibilities  of  Bos- 
ton "  culture,"  stranded  their  enterprises  on  "  the  rock  of 
division." 

The  Hibernian  held  the  Scot  at  bay,  and  although  the 
wisdom  of  the  author  of  the  "Conflict  of  Ages"  was 
invoked,  which,  lest  Presbyterianism  might  obtain  a  foot- 
hold in  "the  Mount  Zion  of  the  whole  earth,"  was  cheer- 
fully given,  yet  only  on  condition  that  when  the  foreigner 
should  come  he  must  be  identified  with  the  said  gentleman 
and  his  Association. 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  393 

By  their  agitation  "  a  mixed  multitude  "  of  five  persons, 
Episcopalians,  Baptists  and  Orthodox,  sloughed,  and  the 
pioneer  was  allowed  for  a  time  to  proceed  in  his  "  work  of 
the  ministry."  To  him,  on  tlie  first  Sahbath  in  October, 
opposition  became  a  reality.  A  Mr.  John  Fisher,  who 
had  been  degraded  from  the  Presbyterian  ministry  for  for- 
nication, and  who  hailed  from  the  Socinian  Presbytery  of 
Armagh  in  his  native  land,  had  a  hall  opened  in  Boston. 

Wlien  the  Unitarians  or  Arians  in  Ireland  were  cast  out 
by  the  Synod,  they  associated  themselves  and  laid  claim 
to  all  the  powers  of  ordination,  of  which  they  had  been 
judicially  deprived. 

On  his  first  Sabbath  only  seven  of  his  nationality 
attended  the  Presbyterian  place  of  worship.  For  months 
his  eloquence  drew  large  audiences  from  the  floating  po))u- 
lation  of  the  city,  and  while  financially  assisted  by  rich 
Unitarians,  as  well  as  by  some  of  his  own  countrymen,  he 
dechired  that  he  did  "  not  want  the  co-operation  of  any 
Trinitarians."  This  fleshy  and  "  fleshly  "  man  "  finished 
his  course  "  here  in  twenty-five  months,  and  then  went  to 
Cannelton,  in  Indiana. 

After  fourteen  montlis'  labor,  on  the  18th  of  July,  1847, 
'the  writer  was  installed  as  pastor  of  the  church  Avhich  he 
had  been  instrumental  in  gathering.  His  work  was 
laborious.  His  people,  living  in  Boston,  Charlestown, 
Chelsea,  Cambridge,  Brookline,  Roxbmy  and  Dorchester, 
he  had  almost  literally  to  "  go  out  into  the  highways  and 
compel  them  to  come  in."  Then,  before  the  introduction 
of  horse  cars,  excepting  some  ponderous  omnibuses  on  a 
few  streets,  his  common  mode  of  locomotion  was  "the  foot 
and  walker  "  line. 

Six  years  of  j^rosperity,  spiritual  and  outward,  were 
granted  to  the  congregation,  and  if  it  onl}^  could  have  ob- 
tained a  church  edifice,  it  would  soon  have  become  a  force 
in  tlie  city. 

As  an  exotic,  its  hired  halls,  and  simple  Scriptural  wor- 
ship were  not  entertaining  to  those  wdio  thought  it  good  to 
be  Avhere  they  could  "  rejoice  at  the  sound  of  the  organ  " 
(Job  xxi.  12j.  Upon  the  use  of  the  varied  means  of  grace 
the  Divine  blessing  extensively  rested.  Parents  were 
measurably  faithful  to  their  vows,  the  prayer-meeting  and 
Sabbath-school  were  well  attended,  and  "the  house  of 
God  "  was  not  "  forsaken." 


394  HISTORY  OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Still,  a  change  came.  While  a  true  Presbyterian  can  say 
with  Calvin,  "  Nobody  has  yet  appeared  who  could  prove 
that  we  have  altered  any  one  thing  which  God  has  com- 
manded," yet,  being  men  "of  like  passions  with  others," 
they  at  times  become  extensively  influenced  by  their  sur- 
roundings. Among  persons  coming  from  Scotland,  Ire- 
land, varied  British  colonies,  the  Middle  and  other  States, 
from  local  habits,  in  the  exercise  of  religious  liberty,  fric- 
tion must  necessarily  ensue,  and  the  first  permanent  "  rock 
of  division"  was  our  ignorance  of  "the  Aughinsaugh 
Bond."  Disputation  and  se])aration  began  and  continued. 
In  April,  1853,  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  open  a  station 
in  East  Boston. 

In  June,  1853,  some  families  of  the  Reformed  Presbyte- 
rians resident  in  Boston,  were,  upon  request,  visited  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Stevenson,  of  New  York,  their  manner  of  meeting 
in  "  society  "  was  established,  and  in  due  time  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Lawson  (from  New  Brunswick)  took  charge  of  them  as 
stated  supply. 

While  these  divisions  gleaned  the  field  more  thoroughly, 
they  induced  weakness.  This  was  done,  especially,  by 
lowering  the  standard  of  discipline.  Towers  of  refuge  Avere 
now  opened  to  delinquents,  and  another  division  was,  in 
the  autumn  of  1853,  made  by  the  application  of  it.  An 
obstinate  man  was  visited  by  a  committee  of  the  session. 
While  he  acknowledged  (what  he  could  not  deny)  his  oc- 
casional drunkenness,  he  raged  because  one  of  the  elders 
who  visited  him  was  an  Irishman.  This  he  considered 
unpardonable,  "  that  a  man  of  that  nationality  should  rule 
a  Scotchman,"  and  he  sought  relief.  By  consorting  with 
two  of  his  countrymen,  also  lovers  of  strong  drink,  he  with 
them  projected  the  importation  of  some  one  from  their  na- 
tive land,  and  events  concurred  to  prosper  the  enterprise. 
In  the  congregation  one  man  had  been  elevated  to  the 
eldership  who  Avas  more  than  full  of  zeal  for  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  He  became  exasperated  when  per- 
sons from  the  Kirk  applied  for  membership.  "  You  are 
residuaries;  residuaries,  there  are  no  Christians  in  the 
residuary  church  "  was  the  note  on  which  he  harped. 

After  due  examination  of  an  unusually  intelligent  indi- 
vidual from  the  Kirk  for  membership,  to  the  reception  of 
,whom  he  made  obstinate  resistance,  the  other  four  elders 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  895 

told  him  that "  either  they  would  resign  or  he  must."  He 
left,  and  soon  found  in  the  above-mentioned  men  suitable 
association,  and  they  must  now  have  a  church.  Commenc- 
ing by  applying  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Forrester,  of  Halifax, 
N.  S.,  they  were  by  him  informed  that  the  writer  was 
"  competent  to  minister  to  all  the  Presbyterians  in  Boston." 
David  Thompson  then  renewed  their  application,  signing 
it  as  a  ruling  elder.  They  were  then  referred  to  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Bonar,  of  Edinburgh,  whose  first  letter  they  could  not 
read,  only  "  there  was  a  minister  coming." 

Another  application  was  answered  in  plain  handwriting, 
and  it  was  reverberated  by  the  Globe  of  Toronto,  that  "  the 
Scotch  in  Boston  were  about  to  have  a  Scotch  minister." 
He  came  on  the  9th  day  of  December,  1853. 

Notwithstanding  this  force  of  competition  the  First  Asso- 
ciate Reformed  church  prospered  until  secession  was  inaugu- 
rated. After  long  overtures  between  the  Associate  and  the 
Associate  Reformed  churches,  the  one  of  which  sang  the 
Psalms  of  David  and  the  other  sang  David's  Psalms,  a 
union  was  consummated  on  May  26th,  1858.  Into  this  the 
First  church  of  Boston  (while  continuing  an  integral  part 
of  the  Associate  Reformed  Synod  of  New  York)  heartily 
entered,  and  since  that  date  the  denomination  has  been 
designated  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  North 
America. 

The  ;May  anniversaries  in  Boston  of  the  Congregational- 
ist  family  have  been  mentioned,  and  while  attending  the 
Unitarian  one  in  Federal  street  church  on  a  Wednesday 
evening  in  1847,  the  attention  of  the  writer  was  especially 
arrested  by  an  episode. 

In  what  would  have  been  called  in  Trinitarian  churches 
*'  a  narrative  of  the  state  of  religion,"  the  speakers  here  pre- 
sented their  sectarian  growth.  One  from  Portland  had 
encouraging  things  to  say,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  B.,  from  Baltimore.  He  was  all  aglow,  and  while  set- 
ting forth  his  attachment  to  the  shade  of  Channing,  assured 
his  audience  that  tidings  from  that  spot,  since  their  last 
anniversary,  had  made  his  "  heart  heavy."  "  I  heard  (said 
he)  that  this,  our  holy  and  beautiful  house,  was  to  be  sold 
and  given  to  merchandise,  and  my  heart  sunk  within  me. 
Upon  making  inquiry  I  found  it  was  not  so,  and  my  heart 
rejoiced,  for  this  is  our  holj  and  beautiful  house  in  which 


396  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

our  fathers  worshipped,  and  here  a  Charming  breathed  and 
burned."  Wlien  he  had  thus  concluded,  a  most  strange 
expression  of  countenance  was  seen  from  the  front  of  the 
side  gallery  over  much  of  the  house,  and  a  most  ominous 
silence  reigned  for  an  unusual  period  of  time.  The  regular 
course  of  speech-making  was  arrested  until  relief  came 
from  Deacon  S.,  who  gave  to  them  three  sentences  in  Latin, 
assuring  those  who  could  understand  him  "that  the  land 
was  entailed  and  could  not  be  sold."  This  produced  a  halo 
unmistakable  upon  the  countenances  of  tlte  audience,  and 
their  conference  was  resumed. 

In  May,  1848,  in  their  anniversaries,  nothing  of  this  na- 
ture could  be  heard,  and  after  much  consideration  for 
months,  the  matter  was  submitted  to  John  C.  Adams, 
Esq.  His  father,  who  led  the  trials  against  the  Masons  in 
the  Morgan  case,  was  well  known  as  "  Old  Harry  "  Adams, 
of  Canandaigua,  N.  Y.,  and  he  himself  had  filled  the  chief 
chair  in  the  Law  School  in  Harvard  University  _pro  tern,  for 
ten  months.  He  knew  that  the  occupants  had  proposed  to 
sell  it,  but  could  not  give  satisfactory  title.  When  his  copy 
of  the  deed  as  found  in  the  registry  was  presented  to  Rufus 
Choat6,  showing  its  design,  as  we  have  previously  seen, 
solely  for  Presbyterian  use  forever,  he,  after  examination, 
declared,  "  If  you  had  one-half  of  Boston,  you  could  not 
make  a  better  deed." 

As  the  landed  estate  from  the  third  Wednesday  in  Sep- 
tember, 1783,  had  de  jure  iiW  now  and  de  facto  till  1786,  be- 
longed to  the  Associate  Reformed  congregation  of  Boston 
under  the  Synod  of  New  York,  as  it  was  the  gift  of  a  por- 
tion of  his  substance  to  Almighty  God  by  John  Little,  the 
owner,  in  1735,  to  be  enjoyed  by  those  of  like  faith  until 
the  end  of  time,  the  beneficiaries,  to  whom  it  was  (by  one 
of  the  most  solemn  transactions  known  among  men  in  the 
alienation  of  property)  conveyed  under  the  broad  shield  of 
British  civilization,  where  "  conscience  "  has  not  become 
"  seared  as  with  a  hot  iron,"  were  bound  from  generation 
to  generation  to  prevent  the  perversion  of  the  trust  from  its 
charitable  use.* 

*  Seven  men  in  1854  declared  under  their  corporate  oath  that  it  was  a 
"  species  of  property  which  was  not  the  subject  of  any  exchangeable  or 
marketable  value,"  because  it  was  set  to  the  use  of  religion. 


IN   NEW    ENGLAND.  89T 

Acting  under  this  belief,  for  our  property,  we  entered 
suit.  But,  before  doing  so,  we  required  to  have  an  Attor- 
ney-General of  the  Commonwealth  appointed,  as  the  then 
existing  range  of  equity  was  inadequate  for  our  case. 
Nothing  of  this  nature,  and  probably  no  ca^e  of  equal 
magnitude  and  importance  had  previously  been  tried  in 
Massachusetts. 

This  appointment,  by  lobbying  a  little,  our  counsel, 
Messrs.  Choate  and  Adams,  obtained. 

An  Act  to  establish  an  Attorney-General  was  approved 
by  the  Governor  on  May  1st,  1849.  "  Section  8th.  He  is 
to  supervise  all  funds  for  public  charities." 

We  proved  our  identity  and  the  manner  in  which,  in 
September,  1783,  said  congregation,  with  their  trust,  came 
to  the  Presbytery  at  Peterboro,  N.  H.  When  served  with 
a  legal  notice  of  our  claim,  the  fact  did  not  astonish  the 
occupants  so  much  as  how  we  obtained  our  information. 
This  was  to  them  a  surprise.  To  a  sermon  preached  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Channing  at  the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  Ezra 
Stiles  Gannett,  on  June  30th,  1824,  Avhen  printed,  was 
added  by  him  "A  Memoir  of  the  Federal  Street  Church 
and  Society."  The  sermon  was  reprinted  in  England,  but 
the  memoir  was  not.  In  the  libraries  in  Boston  could  be 
found  copies  of  the  English  edition  of  the  sermon,  but  not 
one  of  the  Boston  edition  with  the  memoir.  They  saw, 
after  it  was  published,  that  common  honesty  would  say, 
"  This  is  Presbyterian  property."  Hence,  as  it  could  do 
them  anything  else  but  good,  the  circulation  being  almost 
wholly  among  Unitarians,  they  concealed  and  suppressed 
the  memoir. 

The  watchful  eye  of  Adams,  who  had  advised  us  to  buy 
a  pew  in  said  church,  so  as  to  have  good  standing  in  the 
corporation,  however,  found  one  of  the  concealed  copies. 
This  surprised  them.  Their  greatest  advantage,  however, 
lay  in  the  possession  of  our  records.  Not  the  records  of 
the  session,  for  these  at  times  registered  human  delinquen- 
cies in  relation  to  the  reproduction  of  the  species,  which, 
w^hile  they  w^ere  not  under  the  control  of  the  members  of 
this  "  religious  society,"  did  some  of  them  no  honor,  and  as 
John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague  met  "  a  w^arm  reception  " 
from  the  Council  of  Constance,  so,  the  immaculate  doc- 
tor sent  these  "forth  to  the  light"  -where  no  chemical 


398  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

skill  could  reproduce  the  pages.  This  statement  was 
made  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gannett  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander 
W.  McClure. 

While  the  suit  was  in  progress  our  counsel  were  promised 
by  theirs  access  to  the  business  records  of  the  congregation 
from  1774  till  1803. 

These,  when  they  had  been  inspected  b}^  the  occupants, 
for  them  only  made  bad  worse,  and  in  order  to  make 
a  clear  declaration  by  way  of  denial  in  relation  to  the  pos- 
session of  them,  the  expedient  of  carrying  them  across  the 
street  was  adoi)t(7tl.  They  were  no  longer  in  Unitarian 
possession,  but  were  placed  "  in  safeguard  "  in  the  iron  safe 
of  an  adherent  of  the  New  Jerusalem  Church.  This  gave 
scope  to  the  actor,  their  junior  counsel.  When  the  writer 
called  for  them  other  volumes  were  produced  from  a 
trunk,  and  when  it  was  said,  "  None  of  these  is  the  right 
one,"  the  gentleman's  face  took  awry  shapes. 

He  was  "  sorry  to  say  it  was  once  there,  but  it  was  not 
now.  It  was  gone."  When  asked  if  there  had  been  any 
fire  in  the  building  to  have  destroyed  it,  he  said,  "  None  in 
his  apartment."  The  inquirer  did  not  then  comprehend 
the  emotions  of  soul  which  were  now  playing  contortions 
on  a  usually  pleasant  countenance. 

At  trial,  the  actor's  affidavit  was  put  thus  on  record : 

"  When  I  next,  after  some  months,  went  to  the  trunk 
(containing  the  books  and  papers  of  the  society),  it  was  in 
search  of  said  quarto  jNISS.  volume ;,  but  to  m}^  great  sur- 
prise and  annoyance  it  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  said 
trunk,  nor  after  the  most  diligent  search  and  inquiry  has  it 
ever  been  found  since. 

"  Its  disappearance  is  entirely  inexplicable  to  me,  and  I 
cannot  recall  the  least  hint  or  clue  which  might  lead  to  its 
recovery. 

"  During  the  interval  which  elapsed  between  my  return- 
ing the  trunk  to  Mr.  B.,  and  my  subsequent  recurrence 
to  it,  I  should  have  been  willing  to  swear,  that  the  said 
volume  was,  with  the  other  books  and  records,  in  the  said 
trunk,  and  my  astonishment  at  not  finding  it  was  equal  to 
the  confidence  with  which  I  expected  to  find  it.     G.  S.  TI. 

"  Boston,  February  28th,  1854.  Sworn  to  before  me,  S. 
B.,  Justice  of  the  Peace." 

This  oath  was  taken,  we  are  not  told  by  what.    While, 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  399 

among  Trinitarians,  "  an  oath  forms  the  adamantine  chain 
which  binds  the  integrit}^  of  man  to  the  throne  of  God," 
this  one  was  perfectly  safe ;  not  only  as  to  any  fear  of  his 
"appearing  at  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ"  (2  Cor.  v.  10), 
but  by  the  manner  in  which  the  expectation  of  the  depo- 
nent was  eclipsed  b}'  his  astonishment  resting  on  his  con- 
fidence. His  astonishment,  his  expectation  and  confi- 
dence were  unquestionably  equal. 

"  When  trutli  into  the  earth  was  born, 
She  crept  into  a  hunting-horn, 
The  hunter  came,  a  blast  was  blown, 
But  where  truth  went  was  never  known." 

Here  was,  in  the  opinion  of  the  clerk  of  the  court,  the 
turning-point  in  the  trial.  "  The  man  who  spirited  away 
your  records  was  the  one  who  caused  you  to  lose  your 
case." 

These  records  have  long  since  been  taken  to  Arlington 
Street  church,  and,  to  assist  in  the  preparation  of  these 
annals,  his  counsel  were  informed  that  the  writer  could 
"  have  access  to  them,  if  he  would  promise  not  to  use  their 
contents  against  our  spoilers." 

As  to  the  affidavit,  there  was  no  perjury  in  making  it. 
The  expectation  and  astonishment  were  precisely  equal, 
and  were  regulated  by  the  facts  on  which  his  confidence 
rested.  He  was  "  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind."  He 
told  the  truth,  if  not  "the  whole  truth.  The  records  were 
removed,  as  here  stated,  but  some  friend  might  possibly 
have  done  for  him  the  carrying  when  he  did  not  know  the 
time  of  transit  nor  the  place  of  deposit. 

After  hearing  the  affidavit,  Mr.  Choate  addressed  the 
deponent.  "  Mr.  H.,  I  do  not  desire  to  have  any  un- 
pleasantness here,  but,  I  ask,  as  the  records  were  removed, 
do  you  think  that  they  were  abstracted  by  my  clients  ?  " 
"  Oh,  no,"  was  the  reply.  A  facetious  smile  played  over 
the  countenance  of  the  eloquent  man  when  he  received 
this  reply  to  his  question. 

An  earnest  trial  by  the  ablest  t'alent  at  the  Boston  bar, 
of  a  most  extensive  and  elaborate  case,  reaching  into  a 
variety  of  facts  and  fundamental  principles  in  law,  lasted 
four  days.     R.  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  whose  forte  lay  in  ships  and 


400  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

churches,  occupied  a  part  of  two  days,  while  Rufus  Choate 
spoke  continuously  for  three  hours  and  ten  minutes  with 
a  clearness  and  an  earnestness  peculiarly  his  own.  The 
reply  of  the  senior  counsel  for  the  defendants,  while  pro- 
foun^d  in  comparison  with  the  "  glittering  generalities  "  of 
his  junior,  was  entirely  distanced  by  the  "  dialectical  sub- 
tleties "  of  the  Chief- Justice,  an  Unitarian  of  the  Unitari- 
ans, who  was  unwilling  to  allow  others  on  the  Bench 
beside  him  to  express  their  opinions,  especially  Judge 
Metcalf.  He  was  an  Episcopalian,  and  had  delivered  the 
opinion  of  the  same  Supreme  Court  in  the  Boylston  case, 
in  which  it  was  decreed,  that  the  theologies  of  the  Trinita- 
rians and  Unitarians  are  so  irreconcilably  different  that 
funds  given  to  support  the  one  are  totally  perverted  and 
misapplied  when  used  to  support  the  other.  This  was  a 
case  in  which  an  Unitarian  fund  was  employed  to  support 
Trinitarian  preaching,  and  it  reverted  to  the  design  of  the 
donor  by  that  decision,  as  in  all  equity  it  should.  Not  so 
now.  The  Unitarian's  bull  was  all  right  when  the  Trinita- 
rian's ox  was  gored  and  the  value  returned ;  but  now,  "  it 
is  your  ox  which  has  gored  my  bull."  Your  decision  then 
is  now  inoperative,  as  I  am  greater  than  you  are. 

This  must  not  revert,  as  we  will  see,  by  the  holdings 
(of  the  Chief-Justice,  in  this  case,  called),  "the  court." 
In  reading  and  talking  his  decision,  wdiich  he  accom- 
plished in  two  hours  and  ten  minutes,  he  let  escape  some 
curious  utterances.  When  one  of  these  was  rej^eated  to 
Mr.  Choate,  who  w^as  not  present,  his  solemn  countenance 
and  penetrating  eye  became  peculiarly  his  own,  and  in 
tones,  such  as  he  alone  could  utter,  exclaimed,  "It  is  a 
lie." 

While,  said  Mr.  Dana,  "  If  I  could  only  prevail  on  the 
Chief-Justice  to  believe,  that  there  existed  any  spiritual 
imwer^  which  a  bishop  or  a  Presbytery  could  exercise,  I 
could  win  the  case,  but  I  might  as  well  tr}' ,  with  an  equal 
hope  of  success,  to  run  my  head  through  that  brick-wall 
as  do  so.  He  can  see  nothing  beyond  men  and  numbers." 
This  was  so.  To  imagine,  that  a  man  denying  all  Divine 
or  supernatural  revelation,  excepting  (1  Tim.  ii. 5)  "There 
is  one  God,  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  the 
man  Christ  Jesus,"  could  see,  believe,  realize,  or  admit 
that  those  acting  under  the  power,  by  the  authority  and 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  401 

in  the  name  of  God  the  Son  were  a  reality,  would  be  an 
impossibility.  His  exercise  of  his  own  species  of  logic 
forbade  him  to  believe  him,  who  "  spake  as  never  man 
spake  "  when  he  said,  "All  power  in  heaven  and  upon 
earth  is  given  unto  me."  The  criticisms  given  to  the 
man,  when  the  Bench  retired  to  their  room,  were  not  pub- 
lic property,  but  they  expressed  with  feeling  the  opinions 
of  the  judges  present  (Dewey,  Metcalf  and  Bigelow),  in 
view  of  such  a  decision. 

One  of  them,  an  Unitarian,  insinuated  the  wrong  of  the 
opinion,  not  only  because  the  property  was  Presbyterian, 
but  because,  in  1735,  as  Unitarians  they  could  not  even 
have  had  liberty  to  hold  Unitarian  opinions,  or,  as  he  said, 
to  walk  the  streets  of  Boston,  as  it  was  blasphemy  down 
till  A.  D.  1786,  in  Massachusetts,  to  deny  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity.  Metcalf,  in  view  of  what  was  supposed  to  be 
settled  by  the  decision  of  the  court,  delivered  by  himself, 
in  the  Boylston  case,  felt  outraged.  He  razeed  his  opinion 
as  published  in  the  Daily  Advertiser,  and  it  rested  finally 
in  its  present  shape,  as  reported  in  the  od  of  Gray. 

When  the  decision  was  published  it  stirred  up  "  the  re- 
mainders of  conscience "  where  they  existed.  Hence, 
wrote  one  from  Newburyport,  who  could  investigate  and 
thoroughly  discriminate  in  the  case,  "  I  regret  to  see,  that 
the  Unitarian  influence  has  again  been  too  strong  for  jus- 
tice in  the  case  of  your  church.  However,  the  Lord  rules, 
and  the  day  of  truth's  vindication  cannot  be  postponed 
forever.  This  '  Liberal  Christianity,'  so  called,  has  been, 
from  its  birth,  the  most  intolerant  species  of  Deism  ever 
known.  And,  with  regard  to  the  pure  truth,  the  only 
gospel  of  salvation,  modern  Congregational  orthodoxy  is 
fast  hastening  to  the  same  unenviable  position.  More  and 
more  am  I  convinced  that  God  will  punish  the  proud 
boastings  of  New  England.  I  trust  a  remnant  may  be 
saved,  but  by  present  appearances  it  will  be  a  very  small 
remnant." 

As  there  remained  "some  Puritan  conscience"  in  some 
of  the  occupants,  they  did  not  fully  suppose  that  they 
owned  the  premises  beyond  mere  occupancv,  even  with 
the  "  held  "  of  their  own  Chief-Justice  ;  some  were  actually 
willing  to  return  it  to  the  Presbyterians. 

In  after  time  meeting  after  meeting  (when  they  were 
26 


402  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

able  to  bring  together  a  majority  of  their  pewholders)  was 
held,  to  find  out  what  to  do.  At  length,  as  was  done  in 
1805,  by  the  Trinitarian  occupants,  in  the  perversion  of 
the  trust,  the  majority  invoked  the  Legislature,  and  being 
reputed  in  the  street,  as  a  society,  to  be  worth  twenty-two 
millions  of  dollars,  whether  this  had  any  influence  or  not, 
the  desired  enactment  or  resolve  in  due  time,  on  May  loth, 
A.  D.  1855,  was  passed. 

Presbyterianism,  being  thus  "left  out  in  the  cold,"  hav- 
ing no  rights  which  a  Congregationalist  Unitarian  Chief- 
Justice  was  bound  to  respect,  Non-Congregationalists  be- 
gan to  think.  The  property  of  the  Romish  church  being 
held  in  defiance  of  civil  authority  by  their  bishops,  felt 
safe,  the  Episcopal  Methodists,  as  "their  people  have  (ac- 
cording to  Judge  Nelson)  no  part  in  their  governmental 
organization  and  never  had,"  their  preachers  holding  all 
their  church  estate,  were  not  alarmed,  but  some  Protestant 
Episcopalians  began  to  realize  their  situation. 

"  The  Church  of  the  Advent "  had  subscribed,  in  order 
to  erect  the  most  attractive  church  edifice  yet  in  the  city, 
one  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand  dollars,  and  they 
now  paused.  They  saw  the  pine-board  pew  patronage 
jnight  alienate  their  church  estate  under  Mr.  Shaw's  ruling, 
and  before  they  would  j^roceed  to  build  they  appointed 
three  men  eminent  in  the  law,  two  of  them  officially  fami- 
liar with  our  case,  to  see  if  they  could  form  a  deed  which 
(as  they  put  it)  "the  Chief- Justice  could  not  break  as  he 
broke  Blaikie's  Deed."  After  three  months  they  reported 
that  "This  could  not  be  done."  They  then  bought  a 
Methodist  meeting-house  for  twenty-nine  thousand  dollars, 
considering  a  property  of  this  amount  "  enough  to  be  put 
on  wheels." 

At  their  meeting  on  November  12th,  a.  d.  1855,  the 
pew  "proprietors  "  were  requested  to  enter  on  their  records 
the  "  Protest "  of  the  pew  proxy,  representing  the  benefi- 
ciaries and  cestuis  que  trust.  This  they  did,  and  while  forti- 
fied by  both  the  Bench  and  the  Legislature,  they,  out  of 
love  to  the  spot  which  Channing's  feet  had  made  their 
"  holy  ground,"  and  fears  of  the  force  of  the  "  Protest"  and 
what  supported  it,  spent  four  thousand  seven  hundred 
dollars  in  repairing  and  refitting  the  building.  On  Octo- 
ber 1st,  1858,  they  voted  62  to  11  to  sell  our  land. 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  403 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Choate,  in  Julj^,  1859,  and  the 
removal  of  Mr.  John  C.  Adams  to  New  York,  the  Hon. 
Caleb  Gushing  seeing  in  the  above  decision  and  legislative 
enactment,  "  a  violation  of  the  tenth  section  of  the  first 
article  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  carried  it 
to  the  Supreme  Court  in  Washington,  saying,  "  Oh,  how  I 
would  like  to  have  plead  this  case  before  Chief-Justice 
Taney."  "  I  do  not  know  (said  he )  what  there  may  be  in 
Europe,  but  I  do  know,  that  on  this  continent  there  does 
not  exist  such  an  indirect  and  disingenuous  decision  as 
that  of  Chief-Justice  Shaw  in  this  case."  As  our  former 
counsel  in  framing  their  bill,  had  inadvertently  called  the 
occupants  proprietors,  while  Mr.  Cushing  admitted  this 
pro  tanto,  or,  so  far  as  the  legislative  enactment  to  make 
them  such  had  any  force  in  equity,  and  as  they  had  not 
quarrelled,  the  Act  of  June  5th,  1805,  totally,  he  was  not 
allowed  to  ])e  heard  tliere,  from  the  technical  quibble  of 
the  want  of  jurisdiction. 

While  "the  destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty,"  yet 
Mr.  Cushing,  being  a  Presbyterian,  again  on  behalf  of  the 
claimants,  invoked  the  judiciary  in  equity.  John  H.  Clif- 
ford, Esq.,  was  succeeded  by  Stephen  H.  Phillips,  Esq.,  as 
attorney-general,  and  the  occupants  were  by  the  course  of 
events  emboldened  to  forsake  their  "holy  ground,"  and 
profane  it  for  and-  with  "  merchandise,"  even  while  seven 
men  of  their  company,  under  their  corporate  oath,  swore 
that  "  the  said  premises  form  a  species  of  property,  which 
is  not  the  subject  of  any  exchangeable  or  marketable 
value."  The  restriction  imposed  on  it  by  John  Little 
made  it  truly  so.  On  the  day  of  sale  their  junior  counsel 
for  them  oftered  to  the  claimants  twenty-five  hundred  dol- 
lars, or  about  one-fifty-sixth  part  of  its  value,  for  a  total 
obliteration  of  all  their  demands  and  of  the  demands  of 
future  generations,  who  might  be  beneficiaries.  While  this 
would  have  enabled  them  to  give  a  warranty  deed,  the  offer 
also  evinced  some  "  remainders  of  conscience."  The  cestui 
que  trust,  to  whom  the  offer  was  made,  were  but  a  part  of 
the  whole,  either  in  the  past  or  the  future,  and  they 
refused  to  take  even  Unitarian  money  for  "  the  inheritance 
of  their  fathers,"  which  was  not  "  exchangeable  nor  mar- 
ketable." Naboth  (1  Kings  xxi.)  would  not  sell  his  vine- 
yard even  for  a  better  one,  because  it  was  entailed,  and  the 


404  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

offer  of  five  thousand  "shekels  of  the  sanctuary"  of 
Samaria  was  now  spurned  by  the  lawful  beneficiaries  of 
John  Little's  trust.  Possession  can  be  obtained  only  by 
stoning  Naboth,  according  to  the  counsel  of  Jezebel. 

They  did  not  venture  to  sell  John  Little's  donation  on 
the  lot  itself.  The  auctioneer's  office  was  private  property, 
but  ceased  to  be  so  when  he  announced  his  business  and 
described  in  glowing  colors  the  varied  advantages  of  the 
estate.  Then  a  scene,  which  would  have  afforded  a  happy 
group  for  Punch,  was  presented.  After  reading  all  the  titles 
and  descriptions,  for  "  Naboth's  vineyard  "  here  was  now  di- 
vided into  three  lots,  the  colonel  flourished  his  hammer. 
As  he  began  to  do  this,  a  protest  from  the  beneficiaries, 
which  was  handed  to  him,  he  was  requested  to  read.  At 
this  he  raged,  declaring  "  this  was  no  place  to  settle  titles." 
While  no  sale,  no  pay,  he  became  excited  for  a  first  bid. 
There  -were  no  volunteers.  The  propert}^  was  desirable, 
but  capitalists  remembered  the  nature  of  the  title.  After 
a  time,  incredibly  long,  the  leading  one  of  the  seven  men 
came  from  behind  the  auctioneer's  desk  and  stated :  "  We 
represent  one  hundred  and  twenty  families  as  respectable 
as  any  others  in  Boston,  and  we  can  give  a  warranty  deed." 
The  "  solid  men  "  then  began  to  breathe,  and  the  estate 
was  bought  by  Baker,  Sheafe  &  Weld,  while  the  protest 
damaged  the  sale  above  twenty  thousand  dollars. 

Not  only  was  a  replication  filed  against  the  proprietors, 
so  called,  but  a  bill  of  review  also.  And  afterwards  a  "sup- 
plemental bill  to  the  bill  of  review  "  was  filed  against  the 
purchasers.  I  have  said' "filed,"  but  there  are  different 
ways  of  doing  some  things  in  Boston,  and  the  filing  of  this 
bill  was  one  of  an  extraordinary  character,  in  keeping  with 
the  concealment  of  our  records  from  1774  till  1803. 

Mr.  Gushing  was  now  usually  in  Washington,  and  the 
plaintiffs  waited  long  to  have  their  case  called.  "The 
original  bill,  answer,  petition  for  review,  and  supplemental 
bill  to  the  bill  of  review,"  had  been  all  printed,  and  for 
years  supposed  to  be  in  their  proper  place  under  a  sworn 
official.     The  conclusion  of  it  ran  thus  : 

"And  your  orator  shall  ever  pray. 

"  C.  Gushing,  "  Stephen  H.  Phillips, 

"  Spofford  &  TuTTLE.  "Attomey-General. 

"Attest :  George  C.  Wilde, 

''Filed  March  3d,  1860.  "  Clerk." 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  405 

When  counsel  went  to  inquire  for  said  bill,  petition  and 
review,  these,  like  our  records,  could  not  be  found.  "  These 
bills  have  not  been  found.  They  seem  never  to  have  been 
filed."  The  attestation  of  the  sworn  oliicer  to  the  fact  and 
to  the  date  were  placed  on  the  document,  before  it  was 
printed,  but  then  it  was  only  a  matter  in  which  the  relig- 
ious interests  of  Presbyterians  in  all  time  was  contrasted 
with  the  pockets,  convenience  and  pleasures  of  "  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  families,  as  respectable  as  any  others  in 
Boston." 

Such  was  the  "  Suffolk  S.  S."  of  the  Supreme  Judicial 
Court  of  the  Commonwealth,  and,  amidst  all  the  irrev- 
erence connected  with  doing  so,  Presbyterians  should  as- 
suredly pray,  "  God  save  the  Commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts." Contrasted  with  what  it  was  an  hundred  years 
before,  it  is  a  little  shaky,  so  far  as  equity  is  concerned. 
This  long  litigation  would  not  have  been  continued,  but  for 
"  equity  and  a  good  conscience."  It  never  was  a  matter 
of  private  interest.  Hence,  as  we  are  wronged,  we  are 
resigned,  for  we  know  that  there  is  a  "Judge  of  all  the 
earth,"  "a  God  of  knowledge,  and  by  him  actions  are 
weighed."  If  the  case  could  have  been  presented  before 
the  National  Supreme  Court,  the  result  would  doubtless 
have  been  different.  But  a  court  established  and  main- 
tained by  the  church  polity  of  "  the  Bay  State  "  theocracy 
and  Athenian  democracy,  has  a  logic  of  its  own.  Hence, 
said  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lothrop,  of  Brattle  Street  (Unitarian) 
Church,  "  We  all  know  what  that  property  was  intended 
for,  but  by  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  you  (Presbyterians) 
can  never  have  it."     True. 

With  this  exertion,  in  endeavoring  to  reclaim  our  church 
estate,  we  did  not  desist.  We  supposed  it  possible  (though 
not  probable)  that  "  the  Great  and  General  Court "  which 
had,  out  of  a  Presbyterian  trust,  created  probably  the  last 
Congregational  poll  parish  established  in  the  State,  might, 
even  in  this  material  age,  "lay  judgment  to  the  line, 
righteousness  to  the  plummet,"  and.  counteract  the  wrong 
which,  in  1805,  they  had  done  to  the  beneficiaries.  Here  we 
found  "mankind  an  unco  squad."  Our  first  petition  was 
referred  to  a  committee  on  parishes,  and  "  one  hour  was 
allowed  "  to  make  men  understand  w^ho  we  were,  what  we 
were,  whence  we  came,  what  our  rights^  our  wrongs  and 


406  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

our  complaints  were.  In  that  time  we  must  so  make  them 
to  "mark,  learn  and  inwardly  digest,"  probably  the  greatest 
case  ever  considered  in  their  Supreme  Court.  After  an 
hour  broken  by  interruptions,  they  noted  what  pleased 
them,  and  when  we  were  handed  over  to  the  Legislature, 
they,  most  graciously,  gave  us  "leave  to  withdraw." 

While  it.was  simply  hoping  against  hope,  it  was  thought 
the  better  way,  in  renewing  our  petitions  the  next  year,  to 
employ  the  press. 

Hence  a  plea  was  prepared  and  handed  to  each  member 
in  both  houses,  so  that  if  the  name  were  not  beloved  by 
them,  they  might  not  remain  ignorant  of  our  claims,  in 
their  origin  and  character.  This  will  be  found  as  Appen- 
dix E.  to  this  work,  and  we  commend  it  to  the  intelligent 
and  candid  reader.  It  eventually  went  through  the  same 
"  hour,"  the  same  formal  presentation,  and  obtained  the 
same  most  gracious  "  leave  to  withdraw."  I  do  not,  how- 
ever, say  that  the  majority  of  them  "  sinned  wilfully  after 
coming  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,"  for  it  is  doubtful 
if  the  one-half  of  their  number  read  it.  It  had  no  political 
significance.  As  a  part  of  the  "  History  of  Presbyterianism 
in  New  England,"  it  will  afford  food  for  thought  to  every 
lover  of  our  American  civil  institutions  and  liberties  ;  and 
the  matter  will  (D.  V.)  be  farther  noticed  in  our  next 
chapter. 

We  have  seen  that  this  pioneer  church  prospered  until 
secession  came.  The  field  was  wide,  and  almost  weekly 
'^Presbyterian  strangers"  were  arriving.  Beside  stated 
public  worship,  conducted  usually  three  times  on  Sabbath, 
and  a  week-day  evening  meeting,  the  pastor  at  times  em- 
ployed the  press,  not  only  in  contributions  to  periodicals, 
but  in  pamphlets  and  in  book  forms.  As  every  man  is 
born  an  Arminian,  this  fact  induced  him  to  republish,  in 
1847,  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  James  B.  Rentoul,  of  Garvah, 
on  "  Wesleyan  Methodism  and  Calvinism  contrasted  in  the 
light  of  Divine  truth,  especially  on  the  subject  of  Election 
and  the  Divine  Decrees." 

Finding  that  few  knew  anything  about  the  government 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  he  in  the  same  year  repub- 
lished a  catechism  on  that  subject,  which  had  been  pub- 
lished in  Ireland  in  1835 — to  which  he  added  objections 
to  the  system  of  congregational  ecclesiastical  polity.     This 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  407 

provoked  the  "  Old  School "  to  good  works,  and  in  1849 
the  board  republished  the  original  catechism  of  his  (from 
the  third  Glasgow  edition,  enlarged) ;  he,  in  1850,  pub- 
lished the  fourth  American  edition.  In  1849  he  prepared 
and  published  a  manual,  in  the  form  of  a  catechism,  on 
the  nature,  duty,  matter  and  manner  of  Praise,  with  an 
appendix  from  Romaine,  which  reached  the  fourth  edition 
in  1854. 

Where  men  are  "  set  for  the  defence  and  confirmation 
of  the  gospel,"  they  have  to  grapple  with  immediate  diffi- 
culties and  menacing  oppositions,  according  to  their  specific 
character.  Thus,  "Paul  as  his  manner  was,"  on  Mars' 
Hill,  reasoned  in  one  way,  and  in  a  different  way  before 
the  Jewish  council.  Hence,  to  classify  the  varied  sects  of 
religionists  b}^  which  he  was  surrounded,  the  writer  pub- 
lished "  The  Philosophy  of  Sectarianism,"  in  1854.  Of  this 
volume,  out  of  eighty-six  reviews  seen,  above  fifty  were 
commendatory,  and  some  of  them  flattering,  while  it 
awoke  sectarian  rancor  in  some  bosoms.  Nearly  three 
months  after  its  publication,  the  junior  partner  of  the  firm, 
Phillips,  Sampson  &  Lee,  met  Mr.  McGee,  the  agent  of 
"  The  Methodist  Book  Concern  "  in  Boston,  and,  in  con- 
versation, said  :  "  How  is  it,  Mr.  McGee,  that  we  havefre- 
ceived  no  orders  from  you  for  months?  "  "  I  do  not  intend 
to  give  you  any  more,  because  3-ou  have  published  that 
book,  '  The  Philosophy  of  Sectarianism.'  "  "  That  is  not 
against  you,  is  it?  "  "Yes.  It  is  the  worst  book  that  was 
ever  written  against  Methodism,  and  we  have  from  you 
withdrawn  our  trade." 

As  Mr.  Phillips  stated,  he  came  to  their  office  and  said: 
"  Mr.  Phillips,  we  must  throw  out  that  book,"  naming  it. 
"  Why?  "  "  Because  Mr.  McGee  says  it  is  the  worst  book 
which  was  ever  written  against  Methodism.  He  has  quit 
dealing  with  us  on  account  of  it,  and  his  trade  is  to  us 
worth  one  thousand  dollars  a  year."  "  If  you  are  done, 
^Ir.  Lee,  allow  me  to  speak.  I  am  a  Unitarian.  I  have 
taken  that  book  home  and  read  it.  You  may  depend  U})on 
it,  that  if  it  is  hard  on  Methodists,  it  is  harder  on  Unitari- 
ans. I  am  not  ashamed  to  ask  any  man  a  dollar  for  that 
book,  and  you  can  tell  Mr.  McGee  that  I  will  lose  his  trade 
before  I  will  quit  selling  it.     It  is  a  book  for  thinking 


408  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Of  it  a  second  edition  was  published  in  1855.  After  the 
union,  which  formed  "  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of 
North  America,"  the  writer,  for  the  use  of  Presbyterians, 
published  in  1860  a  small  work  called  V  The  Schools,"  and 
in  1865  another  on  "The  Organ  and  Other  Instruments 
as  Noted  in  the  Holy  Scriptures." 

From  1846  until  1854  the  Presbytery  of  the  bounds  was 
the  Associate  Reformed  one  of  New  York.  To  attend  its 
meetings  was  inconvenient  and  expensive.  Hence,  in 
answer  to  a  petition  to  Synod,  one  was  constituted  on  July 
11th,  1854,  and  called  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery 
of  Boston.  The  members  composing  it  were  the  Revs. 
Alexander  Blaikie,  James  Otterson,  David  A.  Wallace  and 
William  McMillan. 

On  September  12th  said  Presbytery  ordained  Mr.  James 
McLaughlin,  and  on  November.  2d  installed  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam McLaren  as  pastor  in  Fall  River.  From  year  to  year 
in  their  quarterly  meetings  the  usual  business  allotted  to 
such  courts  was  by  its  members  transacted,  which  aided 
in  sustaining  Presbj^terianism  in  New  England.  In  1858 
it  went  into  the  union  of  the  Associate  and  Associate  Re- 
formed Churches.  Previous  to  May  5th,  1868,  twenty-one 
ministers  had  for  a  shorter  or  a  longer  time  belonged  to  it. 
During  this  period  (1843-1868)  we  have  to  notice  a  re- 
turned loan — we  will  not  say  the  recovery  of  stolen 
property.  One  hundred  and  forty-five  years  ago  in  our 
history  we  read  this  inscription,  "  Here  lies  ye  body  of  ye 
Rev.  Mr.  Peter  Daille,  who  died  the  21st  of  May,  1715," 
etc.  This  is  a  few  rods  within  the  gate  of  the  Granary 
burying  ground,  opposite  to  liorticultural  Hall,  Boston. 

He  had  left  an  unblemished  reputation,  and  to  mark  the 
resting-place  of  his  dust,  a  headstone  of  blue  flag  had  been 
erected. 

Of  some  minds  it  attracted  the  attention,  a.  d.  1715 
probably  was  long  past,  and  at  a  period  when  Presbyte- 
rianism  was  probably  extinct — at  a  time  unknown  to  any 
man  now,  when  town  officials  or  private  proprietors  were^ 
extending  the  sewerage  below  the  Common,  covering  stone 
was  a  cash  article  in  Boston,  and  to  some  one  the  thought 
occurred  that  instead  of  marking  where  a  man  of  the 
Presbyterian  persuasion  was  buried,  it  would  save  a  trifle 
and  make  some  good  covering  to  bury  the  stone.    This 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  409 

showed  economy  and  utility,  besides  it  would  prevent  any 
one  in  future  by  this  object  discovering  the  grave  of  a 
Huguenot.  Hence  it  had  for  generations  been  useful  to 
the  town  or  cit}'. 

But  in  A.  D.  1860,  in  June,  as  men  were  improving  or 
enlarging  the  sewer,  one  struck  his  pick  into  the  stone, 
and  while  unable  to  "make  any  thing  of"  the  letters  on 
the  fragments,  his  Honor  Mayor  ShurtleJff,  although  pro- 
fessionally he  could  not  aid  the  case  by  "pouring  in  oil 
and  wine,"  yet  he  "bound  up"  the  fragments  with  rivets, 
and  made  the  epitaph  legible.  Being  not  only  a  rare  em- 
bodiment of  elevated  humanit}^,  a  gentleman,  but  possibly 
of  the  same  "  stock,"  this  labor  of  love  and  the  expenses 
connected  with  it  were  by  him  most  cheerfully  borne. 
AVith  its  broken  top,  the  stone  can  be  readily  seen  through 
the  gate.  Let  Presbyterians  "  keep  their  eye  upon  it,"  so 
that  the  ghouls  may  not  again  hide  it  from  the  light  of 
day. 

Fall  River. — Among  the  many  advantageous  sites  for 
manufacturing  purposes  in  New  England,  this  place  has  a 
high  position.  Within  one-half  of  a  mile  the  river  falls 
150  feet,  almost  every  yard  of  which  descent  is  appreciated 
and  appropriated,  and  to  it,  of  course,  operatives  from 
similar  departments  of  industry  in  North  Britain  and  Ire- 
land at  an  early  day  emigrated. 

To  those  of  the  Presbyterian  persuasion,  in  1833  the  As- 
sociate Presbytery  of  Albany  assigned  a  licentiate,  Mr. 
Chauncy  Webster.  How  long  he  preached  to  them  is  not 
exactly  known,  but  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Blair,  of  New  York, 
Avho  was  ordained  in  September,  1836  (some  fourteen 
months  before  Mr.  Webster),  taking  a  friendly  interest  in 
them,  as  a  station,  after  that  date  visited  them  from  time 
to  time. 

So  much  progress  was  made  that  two  persons  were 
chosen  to  the  eldership.  These  the  Rev.  David  Gordon, 
supplying  there  by  the  order  of  the  Presbytery  of  Albany, 
ordained  and  organized  the  church.  By  others,  sent  by 
the  Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York,  they  had  supplies 
until  1840,  when  owing  to  the  removal  of  the  senior  elder, 
and  the  eftects  of  the  commercial  depression  of  1837  and 
onward,  as  employes,  they  became  unable  to  sustain  and 
retain  their  organization. 


410  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

It  is  not  known  that  during  the  next  five  years  any- 
thing was  done  towards  resuscitating  the  cause  here.  But 
in  January,  1846,  the  Rev.  Jno.  B.  Dales,  on  visiting  a 
family  formerly  from  his  charge  in  Philadelphia,  wrote 
thus :  "  Through  them  I  soon  became  acquainted  with  our 
prospects  there.  On  vSabbath  I  met  the  people  in  a 
pleasant  upper  room.  They  had  known  the  principles 
and  practices  of  truth,  and  now  iixr  from  anything  like 
either,  they  hungered  and  thirsted  for  the  provisions  of 
grace.  Never  have  I  preached  to  more  solemnly  attentive 
audiences  than  in  that  place.  During  the  week  I  visited 
between  twenty  and  thirty  families,  all  of  whom  are  ripe 
for  an  organization  under  our  name,  and  some  of  those 
men  are  men  of  Gody 

In  June  the  Rev.  Andrew  Johnston,  by  the  appointment 
of  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  of  New  York,  or- 
ganized them  as  a  church.  What  rarely  happens  in  such 
a  case,  the  men  to  "  magnify  the  office  "  of  the  ruling  elder- 
ship were  easily  found.  The  great  difficulty  was  that 
Presbytery  had  not  the  preachers  to  occupy  the  station. 
On  visiting  them  in  August,  the  Rev.  Wm.  McLaren,  of 
New  York,  wrote :  "  The  prospect  is  encouraging.  The 
audience  on  Sabbath  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty. 
They  are  resolved  to  go  forward,  and  are  about  purchasing 
lots  for  a  church  edifice."  This  they  did,  and  while  by 
years  of  toil  some  of  them  owned  their  own  dwellings, 
when  they  opened  their  house  of  worship  on  April  23d, 
1848,  "  every  shingle  owned  by  the  congregation  was 
mortgaged  "  to  secure  the  builders.  On  June  15th,  1848, 
the  "  Rev.  Thos.  G.  Carver,  of  the  Congregational  Union 
of  England  and  Wales,"  was  admitted  as  a  member  of 
the  Presbytery  of  New  York.  On  being  assigned  by 
S3mod  to  their  care,  he  was  appointed  to  officiate  in  Fall 
River  for  eleven  months. 

On  November  30th  they  extended  to  him  a  call  to  be- 
come their  pastor.  This  he  accepted  January  24th,  1849. 
Their  next  movement  was  to  exchange  their  house  of 
worship  for  a  large  and  commodious  one  built  in  1843  for 
an  Unitarian  Baptist  society.  This  they  entered  on  Sep- 
tember 22d,  1850.  By  this  their  debt  was  increased,  but 
so  were  their  hopes  and  energies.  "  Measures  for  the  in- 
stallation of  Mr.  Carver  were  deferred  until  the  next  stated 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  411 

meeting  of  Presbytery  in  May."  "  Coming  events  "  were  in 
his  case  "casting  their  shadows  before."  With  the  floating 
population  he  was  popular,  but  when  he  preached 
"another  gospel,  which  was  not  another,"  he  had  in  his 
audience  men  "mighty  in  the  Scriptures,"  who  readily  saw 
that  while  he  did  not  "take  heed  to  the  doctrine,"  he 
could  not  "save  those  who  heard  him." 

"The  fruits  of  righteousness,  which  are  by  Jesus 
Christ,"  withered  rapidly,  and  in  March,  1849,  he  "  left  the 
connection  informally,  and  united  with  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church."  At  Synod,  in  August,  1850,  their 
Presbytery  reported,  "  Like  the  bush  on  Horeb  Mount, 
this  faithful  church  has  survived  what  in  all  human  ex- 
pectation would  have  destroyed  it,  and  at  this  day  is  in 
the  most  encourasing  position." 

On  June  3d,  1851,  the  Rev.  David  A.  Wallace  was  or- 
dained and  installed  pastor.  Bringing  with  him  energy  to 
his  work,  his  diligence  and  faithfulness  were  crowned  with 
success.  Yet  he  perhaps  rather  thought  the  field  to  be  a 
"pent-up  Utica,"  and  on  January  17th,  1854,  he  was  by 
Presbj^tery  removed  to  East  Boston.  This  people,  "  cov- 
eting earnestly  the  best  gifts,"  next  called  the  Rev.  Wm. 
McLaren,  formerly  pastor  of  Franklin  street  church,  New 
York.  Over  them  he  was  installed  on  November  2d.  He 
was  a  ripe  scholar,  uncommonly  well  acquainted  with  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  a  clear  writer,  a  terse  and  energetic 
speaker,  and  his  sermons,  even  when  repeated,  were  by 
his  people  realized  to  be  good.  He  enjoyed  more  than  did 
his  predecessor  the  quietude  of  his  study,  and  probably 
taught  less  "from  house  to  house."  After  a  pastorate  of 
nearly  twelve  years,  he,  on  September  18th,  1866,  tendered 
his  resignation  for  reasons — 1st,  impaired  health  ;  2d,  the 
leadings  of  Divine  Providence;  3d,  the  congregation  are 
prospering  and  free  from  debt.  The  Presbytery,  on  Oc- 
tober 18th,  with  great  regret,  granted  his  request.  On  the 
28th  his  pulpit  was  declared  vacant,  and  on  April  16th, 
1867,  he  was  dismissed  from  Presbytery. 

His  successor  was  the  Rev.  Joshua  R.  Kyle,  who  was  in- 
stalled on  June  27th,  1867.  By  this  date  the  United 
Presbyterian  church  was  agitated  by  the  progressive  spirit 
of  the  age  (to  be  subsequently  (D.  V.)  presented).  This  it 
is  supposed  formed  the  second  reason  of  the  retiring  pastor 


412  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

above  given,  and  with  it  the  present  incumbent  was  not  a 
little  imbued. 

While  by  no  means  equal  to  either  of  his  two  predeces- 
sors in  pulpit  power,  and  in  difficulty  with  one  of  his 
elders,  there  were  those  who  thous^ht  well  of  him,  and  on 
April  6th,  1869,  he  received  a  call  from  the  United  Pres- 
byterian congregation  of  Princeton,  Indiana.  As  his 
usefulness  in  Fall  River  was  not  extensively  impaired, 
the  Presbytery  refused  to  dissolve  his  pastoral  relation. 
In  it  he  continued  until  1875,  when,  owing  to  the  impaired 
health  of  his  wife,  an  estimable  woman,  he  resigned,  and 
was  dismissed  in  good  standing. 

In  Providence,  a  city  of  great  commercial  wealth,  as  well 
as  of  very  active  and  successful  manufacturing  industries, 
the  enterprise  of  collecting  a  psalm-singing  churcli  was 
commenced  in  May,  1848,  and  by  the  appointment  of 
Presbytery  on  June  25th  a  committee  received  into  fellow- 
ship twenty-one  persons.  To  those,  sixteen  others  were 
added,  and  on  August  15th  Mr.  Daniel  Mcintosh  was  ex- 
amined and  found  well  qualified  for  the  office  of  ruling 
elder.  On  the  16th  he  was  ordained,  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Patton,  formerly  in  the  office  in  the  church  in  Fall  River, 
was  with  him  then  installed.  By  these  official  acts  the  or- 
ganization of  the  church  was  completed.  For  three 
months  they  were  supplied  with  preaching  by  a  licentiate, 
Mr.  D.  C.  McVean. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Robinson,  received  by  Presbytery  from 
the  same  denomination,  and  at  the  same  time  with  the 
Rev.  Thomas  George  Carver,  was  appointed  to  supply 
them  until  the  next  meeting  of  that  court. 

Both  his  ignorance  of  Presbyterianism  and  his  habits 
operated  against  his  usefulness.  Without  habits  of  indus- 
try and  a  willingness  to  "  endure  hardness  as  a  good  sol- 
dier of  Jesus  Christ "  in  such  a  field,  success  in  "  winning 
souls  "  could  not  be  very  extensive.  There  did  not  at  that 
time  exist  any  superabundance  of  laborers,  and  as  he  did 
not  to  satisfaction  fill  the  position,  after  being  informed  by 
their  Presbytery  that  they  could  not,  for  at  least  three 
months,  aff'ord  to  them  constant  preaching,  "  they  called  a 
congregational  meeting  and  voted  unanimously  to  petition 
the  Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York  for  supply.  They 
were  answered  favorably,  and  after  some  time  were  identi- 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  413 

fied  with  that  persuasion.  When  to  a  "Rev.  Dr.  John 
Skinner,  of  Scotland,  they  gave  a  call,  which  he  did  not 
accept,"  they  in  a  short  time  were  more  successful  with 
Mr.  Joseph  Saunderson.  He  hecame  their  pastor.  The 
dew  of  his  youth  and  the  heauty  of  manhood  were  upon 
him.  While  his  ministry  was  for  a  time  successful, 
calamity  overtook  him.  His  landlady  had  a  daughter 
wlio  had  separated,  or  had  been  sej^arated  from  her  hus- 
hand.  She  (as  Mr.  Saunderson  supi)osed  in  jest)  asked 
him  to  marry  her,  and  in  pleasantry  he  gave  an  afhrma- 
tive  answer.  When,  some  weeks  after,  she  inquired,  "  Mr. 
Saunderson,  are  you  ready  to  fulfil  your  promise?" 
"  When  you  present  the  gentleman  and  proper  papers,  I 
am."  "  You  said  nothing  about  papers ;  you  promised  me 
marriage  yourself."  "  I  never  thought  of  such  a  thing," 
said  he.  The  mother  overhearing,  declared  that  she 
"  heard  him  say  so,  and  further  stated  that  in  the  event  of 
refusal,  he  would  be  prosecuted."  Here  was  manifested  a 
development  of  modern,  not  of  the  early  New  England 
family  training,  religious  enlightenment  and  social  life 
which  he  began  now  experimentally  to  understand. 
"  Foolish  talking  and  jesting  are  not  convenient."  So 
Delilah  won. 

As  not  only  did  her  husband  live  within  a  day's  jour- 
ney, but  according  to  the  statement  of  the  Rev.  H.  H. 
Blair  "  before  Presbytery,  no  evidence  was  produced  that 
even  the  civil  law  had  been  invoked,"  so,  notwithstanding 
his  popularity  with  his  own  nationality  and  the  people 
generally,  separation  came. 

They  next  gave  a  call  to  a  Mr.  McGauchy,  and  I  now 
quote  the  written  statement  of  a  principal  actor  on  both 
sides,  at  times  with  each  party,  the  oldest  elder  in  that 
church : 

'^  He  went  on  to  New  York,  ostensibly  to  accept  their 
call,  but  he  did  not  do  so,  and  would  not.  Pie  was  then 
appointed  to  some  other  place,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alexan- 
der Bullions  was  sent  to  Providence,  and  arrived  there  in 
due  time,  but  Mr.  McGauchy  was  before  him,  and  next  day 
took  forcible  possession  of  the  pulpit.  A  lawsuit  was  in- 
stituted "  and  his  adherents  were  cut  off  by  Presbytery. 
"  They,  with  Mr.  McGauchy,  joined  the  Old  School  under 
the  agreement  that  they  were  to  sing  the  Scotch  version  of 


414  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM." 

the  Psalms  and  none  other.  All  this  was  cordially  agreed 
to  and  put  upon  Presbytery's  record  at  Deep  River,  Con- 
necticut, but  it  was  not  kept,  for  they  soon  found  pretences 
to  use  Watts.  They  then  tried  by  fraud  to  keep  possession 
of  the  property,  but  they  were  foiled,  and  at  last  gave  it  up 
to  the  Associate  Church." 

During  the  period  that  this  strife  was  pending  the  Asso- 
ciate people  worshipped  in  a  hired  hall.  "The  greater 
part  of  the  others  for  a  time  went  nowhere." 

During  these  years  of  confusion  some  thought  their  best 
interests  would  be  better  subserved  if  tliey  were  again  in 
connection  with  the  Associate  Reformed  Church,  and  on 
April  11th,  1855,  they  made  application  to  the  Boston 
Presbytery.  In  granting  the  request  conditionall}^,  the 
court  appointed  a  committee  to  shew  to  the  Associate 
Presbytery  why  they  were  induced  to  reoccupy  in  Provi- 
dence. The  way  was  not  yet  clear,  and  the  application 
was  not  renewed  until  May  12th,  1857,  when  the  appli- 
cants presented  themselves  as  "  the  First  Scotch  Presbyte- 
rian Church  "  of  that  city.  Again  a  committee  of  inquiry 
was  appointed,  and  on  June  9th,  1857,  by  Presbytery,  their 
"petition  was  not  granted." 

By  or  before  1856,  the  church  in  the  hall  obtained  the 
services  of  the  Rev.  Andrew  Thomas. 

He,  although  a  Scotchman,  was  formerly  au'Independent 
preacher  at  Runcorn  Quarries,  in  England.  He  was  led 
off'  from  his  early  Presbyterian  training  by  fellow-students, 
and  remodelled  under  the  Rev.  Ralph  Wardlaw,  D.  D.,  but 
engaging  as  a  preacher,  he  soon  found  that  the  church  was 
Independent,  while  his  hearers  and  himself  were  subjected 
too  extensively  to  the  control  of  the  owner  and  employer. 
After  trying  city  missionary  work  for  a  time,  he  came  to 
Montreal  and  supplied  during  the  winter  of  1849-50  iji  a 
kirk  at  Lachine.  Enamoured  with  the  system  of  his 
choice,  he  supposed  he  could  find  and  enjoy  it  to  perfec- 
tion on  its  native  soil,  and  he  came  to  Boston.  He  was  a 
Calvinist,  and  after  a  few  hearings,  had  to  seek  fellowship 
elsewhere.  Among  other  j)laces,  he  served  in  Providence 
for  about  two  years;  and  was  minister  of  the  Associate 
Church  there  when  their  property  was  to  them  restored  by 
the  other  litigants. 

After  the  union  on  May  26th5  1858,  order  was  exten- 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  415 

sively  restored,  and  from  the  United  Presbytery,  on  Octo- 
ber 18th,  1859,  the  moderation  in  a  call  was  requested  and 
made  in  favor  of  a  licentiate,  Mr.  R.  G.  Wallace.  This  he 
did  not  accept. 

On  June  14th,  1859,  it  was  stated  by  a  leader  in  the 
church  (Mr.  R.  Reekie)  that  the  three  ruling  elders  who 
had  followed  the  fortunes  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  McGauchy  to 
Deep  River  and  since,  were  "  now  returning,  although  the 
hymn  mania  is  still  raging  high  in  Broadway  (in  the  then 
Old  School  church),  and  by  all  appearances  the  lines  will  be 
more  distinctly  drawn  and  people  be  the  more  able  to 
judge  knowingly  in  the  case.  American  Presbyterianism 
has  always  before  this  been  before  the  publick  in  Provi- 
dence dressed  in  colours  that  did  not  belong  to  it,  but  we 
hope  now  it  is  going  to  throw  off  the  mask  and  treat  us  to 
a  view  of  its  inconsistencies." 

On  December  1st  the  Rev.  Wm.  McLaren  wrote,  "  Mr. 
Magee,  the  Old  School  minister,  has  left  Providence,  and  it 
is  thought  that  all  will  join  our  church  and  occupy  the 
building  on  Broadway.  The  Old  School  here  can't  com- 
pete with  us  out  this  way." 

Among  other  sujjply  during  this  season  of  turmoil  was 
the  venerable  Rev.  Andrew  Heron,  D.  D.  He  came  to  dis- 
pense the  eucharist  and  managed  to  unite  the  two,  the  one 
which  came  out  with  Thomas,  and  the  part  of  the  church 
which  opposed  his  preaching  in  the  Associate  church. 
"After  the  innovation  of  Watts'  psalms  the  Old  School 
kept  to  the  church,  but  when  the  Thomasites  and  those 
they  had  put  out  of  the  church  came  together,  the  Old 
School  party  gave  up." 

On  December  5th,  1859,  another  moderation  was  granted. 
This  was  presented  to  Mr.  John  C.  Robb,  a  licentiate,  on 
April  21st,  and  he  was  ordained  and  installed  on  April 
27th,  1860.  After  a  successful  pastorate  of  above  thirteen 
3' ears,  he  was,  on  September  9th,  1873,  released  and  dis- 
missed by  Presbytery  on  January  22d,  1874. 

Lowell  was  incorporated  as  a  city  in  1836,  and  in  1850 
it  contained  a  population  of  33,385  souls,  subsisting  prin- 
cipally on  the  manufacturing  industries.  About  one-third 
of  its  population  were  foreigners,  and,  among  these,  it  was 
deemed  advisable  to  seek  expatriated  Presbyterians. 

On  going  thither  in  the  evening  on  March  20th,  the 


416  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

writer  found  the  extensive  factories  all  illuminated.  The 
sight  was  pleasant  and  the  question,  "Why?"  was  an- 
swered by,  "  It  is  the  blowing  out  ball."  For  the  next  six 
months  the  factories  would  not  be  operated  by  artificial 
light.  Hence  the  dance  to-night.  Evening  visits  were 
made  for  some  time,  so  that  before  any  were  invited  to 
public  worship  in  the  Presbyterian  form,  it  might  be 
known  whether  the  experiment  would  probably  succeed. 
Then  a  hall  must  be  found,  and  next  a  constant  supply  of 
preaching.  All  this  it  took  weeks  to  accomplish.  In  one 
of  these  evening  visits  he  found  Mr.  George  Cathcart,  who 
agreed  when  he  returned  to  guide  him  to  some  of  his  ac- 
quaintances. His  house  stood  detached,  near  the  wall  of 
a  factory,  and  with  unoccupied  land  in  the  rear.  He 
found  him,  to  his  God,  offering  his  evening  song  in  a 
psalm,  and  he  was  in  no  hurry.  The  little  "Arabs " 
gathered,  and  he  went  off  the  street  into  the  vacant  lot  to 
pass  time.  When  he  returned,  Mr.  Cathcart  was  reading 
his  Bible  and  he  had  to  retreat.  Before  he  had  proceeded 
far  in  his  j^rayer  a  burly  watchman  thought  this  man  re- 
quired a  share  of  his  "  tender  mercies,"  and  a  colloquy 
began : 

"Captain,  I  want  to  know  what  you  are  doing  here?" 
"Friend,  I  will  do  you  no  harm."  "I  guess  I  have  some 
right  in  these  'diggings,'  what  business  have  you  here?" 
The  urchins  were  now  around  us,  apparently  by  dozens, 
with  a  rapid  increase.  "  Neighbor,  if  you  must  know,  I 
am  waiting  until  a  man  is  done  his  prayers." 

This  was  beyond  his  comprehension.  To  him  it  was 
solemn  mockery.  If  the  intruder  had  spit  in  his  face,  or 
knocked  him  down,  the  insult  would  probably  have  been 
less.  The  idea  that  a  man  was  praying  so  near  his  premi- 
ses, if  one  were  praying  aloud  in  his  family  in  Lowell  at 
that  hour,  was  to  him  an  incredibility,  and  he  magnified 
his  office.  To  avoid  his  grasp,  the  stranger  ran  and  he 
impelled  his  propellers. 

A  few  steps  outside  led  up  to  the  door  of  which  I  seized 
the  handle,  and  he  caught  me.  Before  he  had  time  to 
wrest  me  from  my  grasp,  Cathcart,  the  son,  answered  my 
call  and  opened  the  door,  leaving  this  man  to  "  nurse  his 
wrath  and  keep  it  warm,"  while  quantities  of  sand  and 
gravel  were  by  the  urchins  thrown  against  the  windows. 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  ,  417 

Encouraged  in  the  enterprise,  public  worship  was  begun 
in  this  station  on  Sabbath,  the  16th  of  June,  1850.  Con- 
stant supply  of  preaching  it  was  then  difficult  to  obtain, 
and  after  a  want  for  three  Sabbaths  continuously  the  case 
appeared  to  be  almost  hopeless. 

So  soon  as  the  supply  became  constant  matters  revived, 
and  on  October  7th  api^lication  was  made  for  an  organiza- 
tion, which  was  effected  on  December  1st  by  the  admission 
of  seventy  persons  to  membership  and  the  installation  of 
two  ruling  elders.  The  observance  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
by  them  in  the  simple  scriptural  form  of  their  fathers,  was 
in  Lowell  a  new  thing. 

To  them,  on  request,  Presbyter}^  on  February  25th, 
1851,  granted  a  moderation.  Their  call  was  accepted  by 
the  Rev.  Peter  Gordon.  This  congregation  elected  to 
office,  ^as  trustees,  men  fond  of  argumentation.  Their 
meetings,  ostensibly  to  promote  the  financial  interest  of 
the  church,  grew  extensively  weekly  into  ''  unrul}^  and 
vain  "  talking,  not  productive  of  "  brotherly  love." 

The  wife  of  the  pastor  received  from  her  first  husband 
a  rural  home  of  much  beauty  in  Cambridge,  N.  Y.,  which, 
by  his  bequest,  she  must  occupy,  or  of  it  forfeit  the  en- 
joyment. 

This  drew  the  minister  away  from  Lowell  more  than 
was  profitable  to  the  people.  He  would  occasionally  have 
some  one  of  the  city  supply  for  him  when  absent,  and  be 
told  that  the  congregation  could  hear  these  (and  such 
men)  without  the  cost  of  supporting  ordinances  atv their 
present  expense.  He  was  "  an  excellent  preacher,"  and  a 
most  estimable  man,  yet,  under  conflicting  constraints. 
Hence,  while  holding  their  call,  he  did  not  ask  for  in- 
stallation, and  at  Fall  River,  on  May  19th,  1852,  he  re- 
quested to  and  did  return  it  to  the  Presbytery.  He  left, 
and  after  laboring  as  a  missionary  (at  least  a  part  of  the 
time)  in  Australia,  he  returned  to  Cambridge  in  1855. 
Supply  was  now  given  to  Lowell,  and  on  November  2d, 
1853,  Mr.  William  McMillan  was  ordained  and  installed 
there.  His  hearing  was  defective,  or  he  would  (it  was 
said)  have  sought  admission  to  the  Bar.  His  ideas  of 
official  responsibility  were  defective.  He  took  his  vaca- 
tion at  the  Isle  of  Shoals  so  long  in  autumn,  that  in  keep- 
ing an  appointment  to  assist  him  at  the  communion,  the 
27 


418  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Rev.  D.  A.  Wallace  found  him  (as  he  had  been  for  weeks) 
absent  from  the  city  on  Saturday  evening,  instead  of  hav- 
ing attended  to  the  previous  necessary  preparations.  This, 
of  course,  marred  the  good  feeling  of  the  congregation. 
He  resigned  on  November  loth,  and  left  on  December  9th, 
1854.  Having  had  no  full  opportunity  of  obtaining  a  con- 
densed spiritual  vitality,  this  people  became  "  faint"  while 
"yet  pursuing."  Among  other  supply,  Mr.  Anthony  C. 
Junkin  served  them  for  a  time  after  June  2d,  1855,  and 
continued  with  them  after  Februar\^  1st,  1856.  On  May 
6th  he  was,  at  Thompsonville,  received  by  Presbytery,  and 
ordained  on  the  7th.  As  a  stated  supply  he  could  not 
control  the  tendency  of  events,  and  on  June  9th,  1857,  he 
asked  to  be  released.  Commercial  depression  now  reigned 
in  the  land.  Labor,  even  where  obtained,  ceased  to  be  re- 
munerative, and,  on  October  27th,  as  a  congregation,  they 
informed  Presbytery  that  they  had  "  ceased  to  meet  as  a 
church  owing  to  '  the  times.'  "  In  view  of  their  condition, 
they  were,  on  January  13th,  1858,  by  Presbytery  dis- 
organized. 

Years  passed,  during  which  but  little  effort  was  made  to 
revive  them,  and  while  individuals  and  families  of  Presby- 
terians, as  employment  could  be  obtained,  came  to  the 
cit}^  yet  no  permanent  settlement  was  effected  during  the 
period  ending  with  1868. 

Taunton,  Mass.,  next  received  attention. 

Several  families  and  numerous  individuals  of  Presbyte- 
rians^ were  there  employed,  and  on  February  25th,  1853, 
the  Rev.  William  McMillan  visited  them.  Supplies  were 
sent  to  them  with  encouraging  prospects,  during  summer 
and  through  the  year  1854.  Much  of  the  hopes  of  Pres- 
bytery in  this  station,  however,  centred  in  one  prominent 
man  in  a  remunerative  position  who  soon  afterwards_  re- 
moved to  Bridgewater,  Mass.  Encouragement  sufficient 
to  warrant  an  organization  was  not  given,  and  on  Septem- 
ber 12th,  1855,  the  Presbytery  discontinued  Taunton  as  a 
station. 

For  some  years  previous  to  the  commercial  depression 
of  1857,  the  manufacturing  villages  of  New  England  en- 
joyed prosperity,  and  into  almost  every  town  Presbyte- 
rians were  scattered.  Among  other  places,  Holyoke,  Mass., 
was  visited,  and  from  it,  on  May  7th,  1856,  two  commis- 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  419 

sioners  met  Presbytery  at  Thompsonville,  asking  for  a 
supply  of  preaching.     This  was  granted. 

Among  others  who  oflEiciated  there,  was  the  Rev.  D.  B. 
Jones,  a  native  of  the  neighboring  town  of  Ludlow,  Mass., 
who  had  some  years  before,  in  Ohio,  united  with  the  Asso- 
ciate Reformed  persuasion,  and  who,  on  January  31st, 
1856,  was  received  by  the  Boston  Presbytery.  With  it  he 
continued  but  a  year,  and  was  dismissed  on  February 
10th,  1857.  Owing,  it  is  believed,  to  the  prejudices  of  sect 
which  these  commissioners  (Messrs.  Campbell  and  Robert- 
son) and  their  respective  local  adherents  brought  with 
them  from  Scotland,  the  attempt  became  a  failure,  and, 
as  a  station,  Holvoke  was  discontinued  by  Presbytery  on 
September  10th,  1856. 

We  now  turn  to  East  Boston. 

East  Boston  was,  in  1630,  occupied  as  a  homestead  by 
Samuel  Maverick,  at  the  same  time  that  John  Blackstone 
cultivated  the  Peninsula  of  Shawmut.  It  was  for  above 
a  century  known  as  Noddle's  Island,  this  man  being  at 
one  time  the  owner  of  much  of  it.  He  brought  disgrace 
upon  himself  and  the  Bay  colony,  by  being  the  first  man 
in  New  England  (according  to  story)  who  owned  slaves. 
It  was  not  demanded  for  commerce  until  about  1830,  and, 
in  1847,  the  principal  ship-yards  of  the  city,  a  large  sugar- 
refinery  and  an  oil-mil],  together  with  forges,  a  factory  for 
the  preparation  of  dye-stuffs,  and  the  wharves  of  the 
Cunard  steamers,  all  gave  work  to  an  industrious  popula- 
tion, beside  those  who  daily  obtained  employment  in  the 
city  proper  and  returned  there  to  rest.  It  became  espe- 
cially famous  for  ship-building.  Among  others,  a  Nova 
Scotian,  the  late  Donald  McKay,  alone  on  it,  built  in  com- 
paratively a  few  years  146  vessels,  nearly  all  of  large  size. 
In  doing  so  he  disbursed  above  one  million  of  dollars,  and 
the  "  Island  Ward  "  prospered. 

From  it  a  considerable  percentage  of  the  Associate  Re- 
formed church  came  to  the  city  to  worship,  and  the  wits 
would  sometimes  notice,  that  as  many  as  fifty-nine  Pres- 
byterians would  follow,  or  accompany,  the  father  of  the 
ship-builder  when  he,  on  Sabbaths,  would  leave  the  ferry- 
boat as  he  returned  home.  Consequently,  to  these  per- 
sons occasional  supply  of  preaching  was  given  on  Sabbath 
evenings,  until  in  April,  1853,  when  a  station  was  formed. 


420  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

The  first  supply  obtained,  for  three  months,  was  the 
Rev.  George  C.  Arnold.  A  loving  and  beloved  man,  faith- 
ful above  many — "whom  the  gods  love  die  early."  He 
was  "  sanctified  wholly  "  in  the  mid-time  of  his  days,  and 
after  a  pastorate  of  eight  years  in  Philadel^Dhia  "  fell  on 
sleep." 

He  was  succeeded  for  months  by  the  Rev.  A.  G.  Wallace, 
D.  D.,  who  now,  while  still  a  pastor,  is  the  energetic 'actu- 
ary of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  of  the  United  Pres- 
byterian Assembly. 

In  due  time  a  church  was  organized,  and  on  November 
15th,  1854,  the  Rev.  David  A.  Wallace  was  installed  pas- 
tor. He  was  then  in  the  vigor  of  life,  and  few  congrega- 
tions have  enjoyed  more  intelligent  activity  in  a  pastor, 
than  he  expended  among  this  people,  as  he  gave  his  atten- 
tion to  every  part  of  official  duty. 

He  was  now  in  a  new  field,  the  seat  of  modern  "  cul- 
ture" among  Unitarians,  and  surrounded  by  the  varied 
*' schemes"  of  the  orthodox.  In  "contending  for  the 
faith,"  he  entered  the  field  of  authorship,  and  published, 
in  1855,  his  "  Theology  of  New  England." 

While  he  draws  it  mildly,  his  collated  facts  and  testi- 
monies present  on  the  leading  points  of  doctrine  a  most 
perfect  contrast  to  the  "form  of  sound  words,"  which 
made  the  early  New  England — the  New  England  to  which 
Christians  look  back  with  emotions  of  joy. 

In  his  work  he  shews  the  changes  rung  especially  on 
the  "  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  election,  Adam's  rela- 
tion to  his  posterity,  sin  and  depravity,  human  inability, 
Christ's  satisfaction,  regeneration,  conversion,  effectual 
calling  and  justification."  To  him  also  it  was  not  dis- 
couraging that  the  venerable  Rev.  Dr.  Daniel  Dana,  "  the 
Addison  of  the  New  England  pulpit,"  should  thus  express 
in  relation  to  the  book  his  opinion  by  way  of  introduc- 
tion. "  Can  it  be  for  a  moment  denied  that  within  a  few 
years  words  have  so  entirely  changed  their  meaning,  that 
the  Christian  pulpit  emits  darkness  rather  than  light? 
Can  it  be  denied  that  the  terms  depravity,  conversion,  re- 
generation, atonement,  justification,  etc.,  have  losttheir  origi- 
nal sense,  and  assumed  a  meaning  altogether  new  ?  Can  it 
be  denied  that  in  the  principal  theological  seminary  of  New 
England  the  religion  taught  is  depravity  without  sin,  re- 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  421 

generation  without  holiness,  and  justification  without  the 
righteousness  of  Christ?  Can  it  be  denied  that  pious 
hearers  often  retire  from  the  sanctuary,  and  from  the  in- 
structions of  a  preacher,  Avhose  leading  views  are  entirely 
opposite  to  their  own,  yet  honestly  believing  that  they 
have  heard  the  ver}^  gospel  which  the}^  loved?  Can  it  be 
denied  that  different  classes  of  hearers  widely  distant  in  sen- 
timent have  each  come  away  in  the  confidence  that  the 
preacher  was  of  their  own  opinion? 

*'  Where  are  the  Christians  who  have  occupied  the  stage 
for  twenty  or  thirty  3^ears,  and  have  not  witnessed  a  real 
revolution  in  religion — in  its  doctrinal  views,  its  experience 
and  its  practice  ? 

"  The  decline  and  abandonment  of  the  truth,  so  prev- 
alent and  undeniable,  have  unquestionably  sunk  our 
churches  into  a  sadl}^  depressed  condition.  Yet  how  can 
it  be  expected  that  evils  will  be  removed  until  they  are 
distinctly  seen — seen  in  their  causes  and  connection,  as 
well  as  in  their  magnitude  and  aggravations  ? 

'*The  worthy  and  respected  author  of  this  pamphlet  has 
executed  a  task  of  no  common  importance.  Mr.  Wallace 
has  laid  our  New  England  churches  under  great  obliga- 
tion "  (pp.  21-24.) 

In  1855  the  congregation  undertook  to  build  a  house  for 
public  worship,  the  lecture  hall  of  which  was  opened  for 
service  on  April  10th,  1856,  the  expenditures  so  far  upon 
it  being  $4,200. 

During  summer  the  pastor  entered  into  negotiations 
with  the  trustees  of  the  college,  then  opening  at  Mon- 
mouth, in  Illinois,  to,  of  it,  become  the  president,  and  on 
the  9th  of  September,  1856,  he  was,  on  his  own  request, 
dismissed -by  the  Presbytery.  On  November  3d,  1856,  a 
moderation  was  granted  to  the  congregation,  and  on  Jan- 
uary 29th,  1857,  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Johnston,  who  had  been 
received  by  Presbytery  on  the  14th,  was  installed  pastor. 
Being  a  native,  while  most  of  his  congregation  were  born  in 
the  British  dominions,  he  published  a  good  sermon  on 
"The  Stranger's  Inheritance."  He  found  the  church  ed- 
ifice unfinished,  and  the  congregation  in  debt.  He  with- 
out success  solicited  aid  by  circulars  from  his  own  denom- 
ination. This  became  to  him  a  plea  for  change,  and  in 
order  to  place  the  property  where  it  could  be  perverted  by 


422  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

schism,  his  people  formed  a  ''society,"  and  ostensibly  un- 
dertook to  build  pews  in  the  church,  while  the  floor  was 
not  fully  laid.  This  answered  effectively,  and  by  allowing 
a  small  amount  of  interest  to  remain  unpaid,  they,  by 
foreclosure,  sold  the  propert}^,  and  had  it  bought  for 
themselves  by  a  third  party. 

This  man  professed  to  belong  to  the  Associate  Reformed 
church,  which  on  May  26th,  1858,  united  with  the  Asso- 
ciate Synod,  and  formed  the  United  Presbyterian  church 
of  North  America. 

On  April  28th,  1858,  he  had  resigned  his  pastorate.  As 
his  proclivities  were  towards  another  denomination,  he  be- 
gan to  see  that  if  he  were  separated  from  the  congregation, 
he  alone  could  not  carry  the  church  estate  with  liim,  and 
on  June  8th  he  withclrew  his  resignation,  ostensibly  pro- 
fessing to  enter  the  union.  The  Presbytery,  however,  at 
their  meeting,  on  the  11th  day  of  August,  took  him  at  his 
word,  and  dissolved  the  relation.  He  and  his  party  then 
had  a  meeting  called  on  the  24th  of  August  by  "  the  clerk 
of  the  society,"  not  by  the  elders,  to  whom  in  trust  -the 
deed  was  executed  on  May  1st,  1856.  At  this  meeting  he 
and  his  wife  appeared,  and  exclusive  of  them,  thirteen 
men  and  nine  women  voted  the  property  over  to  the 
"  Old  School,"  while  afterwards  two  of  the  twenty-two  de- 
clared that  while  they  were  present,  they  did  not  vote. 

At  a  meeting  of  Presbytery  on  September  8th  his  anger 
became  "  fierce,"  and  he  and  his  friends  withdrew.  On 
September  12th  his  pulpit  was  declared  vacant.  On  Sep- 
tember 14th  the  two  senior  elders,  with  thirty-seven  others, 
prepared  a  j)'>'ot£st  against  the  action  of  "the  society," 
which  was  presented  to  Presbytery  on  the  4th  of  October. 

He  had  now  "  destroyed  much  good,"  and  after  loitering 
beside  the  wreck  for  above  two  years,  he  left  both  it  and 
the  Old  School  denomination,  for  whom  he  had  done  so 
much,  for  Hastings,  Westchester  county,  N.  Y.,  on  June 
12th,  1861,  where  he  united  with  the  Reformed  Dutch 
church.  After  December  26th,  1858,  to  see  what  number 
might  yet  be  gathered  of  those  who  had  been  spoiled  of 
their  church  estate,  worship  was  held  at  intervals  in  East 
Boston  on  Sabbath  evenings.  This  continued  for  j^ears. 
In  the  meantime,  in  1862,  those  who  occupied  the  house 
called  a  Congregationalistj  the  Rev.  T.  N.  Haskel,  and  he 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  423 

was  on  December  3d  installed.  He  brought  in  an  element 
in  sympathy  with  his  own  views,  and  as  those  who  had 
previously  worshipped  there  were  nearly  all  British-born 
Presbyterians,  an  effervescence  began. 

The  elder  who  had  for  years  officiated  as  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  Sabbath  school  was  set  aside  by  vote,  and  a 
native  put  in  charge.  This  and  other  matters  not  in  ac- 
cordance with  previous  usage  prompted  not  a  few  to 
leave.  These  were  called  bolters.  They  were  occasionally 
supplied  by  the  Keformed  Presbyterian  minister,  and  as 
those  who  had  been  deprived  of  their  house  on  January 
3d,  1864,  commenced  in  a  hired  hall,  by  a  sense  of  duty 
the  prejudices  of  the  former  were  overcome,  and  they 
united  with  them. 

On  April  19th  they  asked  for  suppl}"  and  a  reorganiza- 
tion, and  when  on  November  13th  they  were  visited  by  the 
Eev.  G.  M.  Hall,  they  so  soon  rallied  around  him  that  on 
the  19th  of  December  Presbytery  granted  to  them  a  mod- 
eration, and  he  was  installed  on  April  17th,  18G5.  Wo 
have  already  noticed  some  of  his  characteristics  and  the 
feebleness  of  his  health.  Among  the  fragments  of  Presby- 
terians in  East  Boston  he  was  considered  rather  a  rigid 
disciplinarian,  and  when,  on  December  26th,  1867,  he  re- 
signed, the  congregation  concurred. 

We  now  direct  our  attention  to  Lawrence,  Mass.  In 
1845  capitalists  here  built  a  dam  across  the  Merrimac,  and 
so  rapid  was  the  increase  of  population,  that  in  1853 
(having  the  necessary  ]  2,000  inhabitants)  it  was  incor- 
porated as  a  city.  Here,  as  usual,  the  "Scuit,"  "the  wan- 
dering Scot,"  was  soon  found.  On  June  5th,  1854,  by 
one  of  these,  the  writer  was  by  letter  informed  that  while 
a  large  part  of  the  300  or  upwards  of  that  nationality,  then 
in  Lawrence,  would  on  "  Sabbath  visit  and  travel  in  the 
countr}^,"  and  say  "  that  they  would  rather  stay  at  home 
than  conform  to  the  American  forms  of. worship,"  still 
some  others  of  them  "  kept  up  a  weekly  prayer-meeting 
on  the  old  principle  of  singing  Psalms  and  standing 
during  prayer."  "  Something,"  said  he, '"  must  be  done  soon 
to  save  this  people  from  perdition."  Consequently  on  July 
2d,  1854,  Mr.  Alexander  McWilliams,  a  licentiate  of  the  As- 
sociate Reformed  persuasion,  commenced  conducting  pub- 
lic worship  in  the  Presbyterian  order^  and  on  December 


424  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

19th  a  church  was  organized.  On  August  7th,  1855,  Mr. 
S.  F.  Thompson,  in  answer  to  their  call,  was  ordained  and 
installed  pastor.  Although  he  made  a  good  beginning, 
and  was  measurably  successful,  he  resigned  his  pastorate 
on  January  29th,  1857,  and  on  March  25th  he  left  the 
city. 

Amidst  the  severe  commercial  depression  of  that  year, 
they  called  on  June  10th  the  Rev.  W.  T.  McConnell.  He 
did  not  accept,  and  they  became  dependent  on  supplies 
until  October  18th,  1859,  when  the  Rev.  James  Dinsmore 
was  installed.  His  entrance  into  the  ministry  was  ex- 
tensively the  result  of  his  father's  wishes  perhaps  more 
than  of  his  own  sensG  of  qualilication  for  the  work.  Pres- 
bytery, at  his  own  request,  the  congregation  concurring, 
released  him  on  September  15th,  1863.  From  this  date 
he  did  not  officiate  in  the  niinistry,  and  being  a  man  of 
strict  integrity  and  unblemished  Christian  character,  he 
soon  afterwards  obtained  joermanent  employment  in  the 
financial  department  of  the  house  of  A.  T.  Stewart  &  Co. 

The  congregation  gathered  from  different  divisions  of 
the  Presbyterian  household  in  North  Britain  and  Ireland 
did  not  altogether  harmonize  in  their  views  of  the  value 
of  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel,  and  as  "thrift  "  sometimes 
"  follows  fawning,"  some  of  them  became  assimilated  to 
their  ecclesiastical  surroundings.  Their  prospects  for  per- 
manent employment  were  not  diminished  by  this  course. 
Here  Presbytery  interposed,  dissolved  the  church,  passed 
the  Session  roll  over  to  their  own  clerk,  and  authorized 
him  to  give  a  certificate  to  every  member  in  good  stand- 
ing, if  they  should  desire  it. 

All  but  five  or  six  were  so  dismissed,  and  the  meeting- 
house was  (for  3' ears)  let  to  the  city  for  school  purposes. 

Hartford,  Ct.,  being  near  Thompsonville,  was  supplied 
with  preaching  by  the  Boston  Presbytery  after  February 
23d,  1862.  That  court,  on  April  15th,  in  answer  to  an  ap- 
plication from  ninety -four  persons,  to  tliem  granted  an 
organization,  which  was  effected  on  May  6th.  One  of 
those  who  officiated  among  them  was  the  Rev.  Wm.  M. 
Claybaugh.  In  answer  to  their  call,  he  was  on  the  day 
of  the  national  fast,  April  30th,  1863,  installed  as  their 
pastor. 

His  father  had  been  pastor  at  Chillicothe,  and,  by  the 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  425 

appointment  of  his  Synod,  Professor  of  Theology  at  Oxford, 
Ohio.  He  was  pre-eminently  a  "messenger  of  God,"  and 
as  such  would  be  recognized  at  sight.  He  in  early  life 
(after  the  death  of  his  mother)  suffered  much  from  bodily 
infirmity,  but  such  was  the  sweetness  of  his  disposition 
and  the  power  of  his  mind,  that  one  of  God's  "  honorable 
women,"  a  widow,  Mrs.  Margaret  MacLandburgh,  of  that 
town,  took  him  under  her  care,  and,  with  a  gentleman  of 
the  i^lace,  "  put  him  through  college."  He  "  was  an  eloquent 
man  and  mighty  in  the  Scriptures." 

His  son  was  slow  to  learn  that  "  there  is  no  royal  road 
to  geometry."  Hence  in  his  early  ministry  he  had 
changes.  Hartford  did  not  suit  him  long,  and  on  January 
8th,  1865,  he  resigned  his  charge. 

To  them  the  Rev.  John  M.  Heron  was  appointed  supply, 
and  on  December  22dhewas  by  them  called.  His  install- 
ation took  place  on  January  17th,  1866.  Hoping  to  obtain 
public  worship  permanently,  the  congregation  purchased 
a  lot,  while  they  had  from  year  to  year  on  Sabbaths  the  use 
of  one  of  the  city  school-houses.  During  the  next  year 
their  pastor  was  for  several  months  confined  to  his  cham- 
ber by  a  severe  fever,  which  eventually  for  years  deprived 
him  of  the  necessary  power  and  command  of  his  voice. 
His  resignation  became  a  necessity,  and  the  pastoral  rela- 
tion terminated  on  December  31st,  1867.  On  May  5th, 
1868,  they  called  the  Rev.  R.  M.  Patterson,  but  of  their 
call  he  did  not  accept. 

South  Boston.  Of  the  congregation  organized  on  Decem- 
ber 20th,  1846,  several  members  were  residents  in  this  part 
of  the  city.  Beside  the  Sabbath  services  and  the  weekly 
meeting  for  prayer,  one  of  the  rulmg  elders,  Mr.  John  Tay- 
lor, the  man  who  believed  in  imputed  guilt  and  imputed 
righteousness,  for  several  years  conducted  evening  meetings 
weekly  in  South  Boston.  In  these  he  usually  read  an  in- 
structive Scriptural  essay.  In  1864  the  attendance  had  so 
increased  that  on  May  27th  those  resident  there  requested 
to  be  recognized  as  a  station  and  to  obtain  preaching.  The 
station  was  opened  on  October  9th,  and  supply  appointed. 
An  organization  was  requested  on  December  19th,  and  on 
January  8th,  1865,  so  soon  as  they  were  recognized  as  a 
church,  they  extended  a  call  to  the  Rev.  Wm.  M.  Clay- 
baugh.     This  he  accepted  on  the  same  day  on  which  he 


426  HISTORY   OF   PRESEYTERIANISM 

was  released  from  Hartford.  The  congregation  was  small 
but  spirited.  They  appreciated  their  privileges,  but  the 
eastern  ecclesiastical  atmosphere  soon  made  liim  wiser  (in 
his  own  estimation)  than  his  father  was.  The  principles 
involved  in  his  ordination  vows,  in  this  age  of  modern 
conscience,  he  began  to  think  were  too  rigid,  for  he  wanted 
"  more  liberty,"  and  tendered  his  resignation  on  December 
2d.  In  this  the  congregation  concurred  on  the  1  Sth,  which, 
being  on  the  26th  of  December,  1867,  made  known  to  Pres- 
bytery, they  officially  granted  his  request.  Supply  was 
then  to  them  appointed. 

Wilkinsonville.  Probably  no  stream  of  its  size  in  New 
England  furnishes  more  manufacturing  villages  in  the 
same  number  of  miles  than  does  the  Blackstone  river. 
Among  these,  Wilkinsonville  was  early  favored  with  a  col- 
ony possessed  of  much  moral  worth  from  Londonderry 
county,  Ireland.  In  common  with  many  other  expatriated 
Presbyterians  in  this  region,  they  found  religious  usages 
from  which  they  derived  but  little  spiritual  advantage. 
This  continued  ifor  years,  until  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cooper, 
D.  D.,  of  Philadelphia,  visited  them. 

They  were  afterwards  supplied  by  members  of  the  As- 
sociate Presbytery  of  Albany.  In  1855  the  church  was  or- 
ganized, and  on  February  28th,  1856,  the  Rev.  James  Wil- 
liamson was  installed  pastor,  and  was  in  this  position  on 
May  26th,  1858,  when  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of 
North  America  was  constituted. 

The  congregation  and  its  pastor  subsequently  became 
identified  with  the  United  Presbyterian  Presbytery  of  Bos- 
ton. The  field  was  limited,  yet  when  manufacturing  was 
prosperous  they  built  a  neat  place  of  worship  and  mani- 
fested liberality  in  sustaining  ordinances.  In  the  course 
of  years  trouble  came.  Their  pastor  was  possessed  of 
good  abilities,  a  pleasant  and  a  faithful  man,  until  he  was 
overcome  with  artificial  appetite,  not  with  the  fearful 
maelstrom  of  strong  drink,  but  by  an  article  much  more 
genteel,  scholarly  and  martial  in  the  estimation  of  too 
many,  by  tobacco.  To  it  he  fell  a  slave,  and  as  it  brought 
on  delirium  tremens^  he  became  obscene,  until  facts  in  the 
matter  were  brought  before  Presbytery. 

His  character  was  now  irretrievably  stained,  and  his 
usefulness  in  his  pastorate  worse  than  gone,  for  while  he 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  427 

was  dismissed  on  April  20th,  1864,  the  condition  of  the 
congregation,  under  partisan  feeling,  had  become  such  that 
the  Presbytery  dissolved  the  church. 

It  is  one  of  the  anomalies  of  modern  Christianity  (say 
nothing  here  of  the  drunkard's  drink)  that  a  pagan  vice 
should  be  allowed  to  destroy  soul,  body  and  character, 
even  among  the  ministry  of  reconciliation,  of  purity,  and 
of  holiness.  When  James  Cartier  wintered  near  where 
Montreal  now  stands,  in  1535-6,  he  found  among  the 
pagans  the  disgusting  "  weed."  Such  was  its  control  as  an 
artificial  stimulant  over  the  stomach  of  the  "  poor  Indian," 
that  traders  of  that  race  brought  it,  when  they  brought 
nothing  else,  from  "  the  sunny  South,"  and  such  is  its  con- 
trol over  thoughtless  youth,  criminally  indulged,  that  mul- 
titudes "  have  their  wealth  "  by  the  production,  prepara- 
tion and  sale  of  this  vile  narcotic,  while  the  slaves  of  this 
habit  are  living:  under  the  doom  of  diminished  usefulness, 
and  (as  a  rule,  with  comparatively  few  exceptions) 
shortened  lives. 

It  is  only  less  destructive  in  its  nature  and  tendencies 
than  opium,  over  which,  as  a  spectacle  before  God,  angels 
and  men,  we  have  to-day  the  pagan  government  of  China 
saying  to  Britain,  the  bulwark  of  Christianity  on  the  earth, 
as  the  heathen  stands  in  an  imploring  attitude  in  negotia- 
tion :  "  Flooding  our  country  with  opium  from  your  Indian 
Empire  is  with  you  only  '  a  fiscal '  matter ;  with  us  it  is  a 
matter  of  conscience."  Yes,  the  feeble,  partial  pagan  con- 
science at  war  with  Christian  cupidit}^  and  avarice.  This 
appears  to  be  incredible. 

In  ways  not  a  few,  this  unclean  habit  hinders  Sabbath 
sanctification  itself,  even  when  the  filthy  perfume  of  secu- 
lar time,  by  its  change  of  dress,  is  partially  removed.  The 
use  of  it  in  j^outh  gives  no  promise  of  vigorous  manhood, 
even  in  military  life.  Hence,  not  only  does  Germany  pro- 
hibit the  use  of  it  to  her  coming  soldiers,  who  include  her 
male  population,  but  to  the  lionor  of  the  United  States, 
her  cadets  at  West  Point  are  prohibited  from,  by  its  use, 
becoming  imbeciles ;  the  prominency  and  exception  of 
ex-President  Grant  to  the  contrar}^  notwithstanding. 

To  the  minister  of  God  it  imparts  no  increasingly  clear 
penetration  into  the  mysteries  of  redeeming  love,  no  angelic 
tones  to  his  utterances,  no  "  crucifying  of  the  flesh  with  the 


428  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM      . 

affections  and  lusts  "  in  his  own  soul,  and  at  times,  as  in 
this  deplorable  one,  it  gives  to  the  enemies  of  Christ  the 
opportunit}^  of  being  "  partakers  of  other  men's  sins,"  and 
presents  detiance  to  the  command  of  him  who  says  to  each 
ambassador  of  Emmanuel,  "  Keep  thyself  pure." 

To  this  station  supplies  were  sent,  and  on  September 
19th,  1865,  a  reorganization  was  granted.  Pursuant  to  a 
call  extended  to  him,  Mr.  Philip  Young  Smith  was  or- 
dained and  installed  pastor  on  October  28th,  1866. 

Thus  stood  the  United  Presbyterian  Presbytery  of  Bos- 
ton at  the  end  of  this  quarter  of  a  century,  in  1868. 

The  Reformed  Presbyterians. 

1843-1868 — Labors  of  their  ministers  in  Vermont  during  the  first  half 
of  this  century — Their  division  about  the  elective  franchise — The  set- 
tlement of  ^ir.  Beattie  in  Kyegate  and  Barnet — Of  them  families 
came  to  Boston  about  1848— They  met  "  in  society  " — Rev.  A.  Steven- 
son and  others  preached  to  them — Organized  as  a  church — Taking 
heed  to  the  doctrine — Patrick  Hamilton — J  as.  Renwick— With  them 
the  truth  of  the  Bible  is  invincible — Do  not  allow  collateral  systems 
— Ever  ready  to  associate — In  a  lew  years  obtain  a  pastor — Rev.  J.  R. 
Lawson — Rev.  Wm.  Graham — His  cause  established  by  1868. 

We  have  seen  their  labors  at  an  early  day  in  Vermont, 
where  the  Rev.  Messrs.  McKinney,  Gibson,  Milligan,  Sloan, 
the  Wilsons,  Johnston  and  Shields  preached  during  the 
first  half  of  the  present  century  to  the  scattered  dwellers  in 
the  wilderness,  instructing  "  inquirers  into  the  principles 
of  Bible  faith.  Christian  testimony  and  social  order."  We 
have  also  alluded  to  their  division  about  the  use  of  the 
elective  franchue,  and  noticed  that  the  Rev.  James  M.  Beat- 
tie  was,  about  1840,  called  to  be  the  pastor  of  Ryegate  and 
Barnet,  where  he  has  labored  during  this  quarter  of  a 
century. 

Among  others,  families  of  this  persuasion  came  to  Bos- 
ton about  1848-9  and  onwards.  Beside  worshipping  occa- 
sionally (and  some  of  them  statedl}^  with  the  Associate 
Reformed  Church,  they  (it  is  believed)  generally  observed 
their  Sabbath  meetings  "  in  society."  To  them  occasion- 
ally, after  May  5th,  1850,  the  Rev.  Andrew  Stevenson,  of 
Ne\v  York,  and  others,  ministered,  and  on  July  12th, 
1854,  a  church  of  twenty-one  members  was  organized  by  a 
commission  of  their  New  York  Presbytery.    As  ministers, 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  429 

in  order  to  "  save  themselves  and  their  hearers,"  must  with 

vigilance  "  take  heed  to  the  doctrine,"  so  among  this  peo- 
ple "  sound  doctrine  "  lies  at  the  foundation  of  their  hopes 
of  heaven  and  of  their  associated  existence  upon  earth. 
To  errorists  they  never  "  bid  Godspeed." 

In  order  to  know  the  truth,  they  have  to  learn  it  and  to 
teach  it  diligently  unto  their  children.  From  the  death  of 
Patrick  Hamilton  down  to  the  murder  of  James  Renwick, 
for  sixty  years,  they  never  did  believe  that  "  ignorance  was 
the  mother  of  devotion,"  and  find  them  where  you  will, 
they  are  believers  in  "  getting  understanding."  While  they 
possess  an  average  n mount  of  the  knowledge  "of  science 
and  philosophy,  commonly  so  called,"  to  them  the  truth 
of  the  Bible  is  invincible  and  irrefragable.  Hence,  in 
teaching  it  to  their  children  they  place  little  dependence 
on  the  less  slavish  and  more  genteel  way  of  modern  appli- 
ances outside  of  the  family.  They  allow  no  collateral  sys- 
tems to  supersede  the  fulfilment  of  parental  vows,  and, 
while  scattered  like  "  two  or  three  berries  in  the  top  of  the 
uppermost  bough,"  they  are  ever  ready  to  associate,  when 
opportunity  is  to  them  afforded,  in  Divine  Providence. 
Consequently,  for  above  two  3^ears  they  labored  to  obtain 
a  pastor,  and  over  them,  on  November  20th,  1856,  the  Rev. 
James  Reed  Lawson  was  installed  by  a  commission  of 
their  New  York  Presbytery. 

In  coming  to  them  for  their  encouragement,  until  they 
might  become  more  steadfast,  he  left  his  previous  pastoral 
charge  in  New  Brunswick.  To  it  he  returned,  and  after 
September  23d,  1857,  this  vacancy  was  dependent  on  sup- 
plies until  the  first  Sabbath  of  March,  1860,  when  Mr. 
William  Graham,  a  licentiate,  commenced  to  labor  among 
them. 

To  them  his  services  were  acceptable,  and  in  answer  to 
their  call  he  was  ordained  and  installed  pastor  on  July 
12th  of  the  same  year  by  their  New  York  Presbytery. 

The  membership  of  the  church  was  then  thirty-two. 
Bringing  with  him  to  the  work  business  habits,  experience 
and  tact,  notwithstanding  the  apparently  exclusive  charac- 
ter of  his  "  form  of  sound  words,"  he  (under  the  Divine 
blessing)  was  prospered  as  a  pastor,  and  at  the  end  of  this 
quarter  of  a  century,  1868,  his  cause  was  firmly  established 
in  Boston. 


430  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 


CHAPTER  XV. 


1868-1881 — Derry — A  monument — An  apple-tree — Only  an  echo  re- 
mained— Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  tiie  Lord — Londonderry — • 
Rev.  W.  House — Kev.  L.  B.  Pert — Fiscally  not  able — Rev.  Ira  C. 
Tyson — Membership — Antrim — Rev.  Mr.  Bates  removed — Variable 
provender — Twenty  poor  fellows — Rev.  W.  Cochrane — Plis  roll— 
Newhuryport — First  Church — Rev.  C.  Durfee — Rev.  W.  W.  Newell, 
Junior — Eleventh  pastor — Rev,  Dr.  C.  C.  Wallace — His  church  roll — 
Second  Church — Rev.  Dr.  W.  M.  Baker — Pastor — Supplies — A  Metho- 
dist— Progressive  with  the  youth — Presbytery  invoked — The  struggle 
— His  name  dropped — Membership — Boston — Rev.  J.  B.  Dunn — An- 
tecedents— He  is  called — Examined  by  Presbytery — His  humorous 
account  of  their  action — Farcical  procedure — Admitted — Pastor — 
Outlying  Presbyterians — Large  numbers — Well  entertained — Their 
gifts  praised — A  committee — An  eclectic  field — Rev.  Mr.  Angler's 
statement — The  executive  officer — Twelve  departments — Mr.  Roe's 
account — Reception  easy — Simplified — The  Press  employed — His 
financial  skill — Results — Springfield  Street  Church  bought — By  men 
of  substance — The  loss  of  the  helm — A  tour  to  Cape  Breton-^Suc- 
cessful — "If  there  was  ony  way  to  feed  them" — One  man  demon- 
strative in  devotion  to  the  pastor — Was  immersed — Opens  a  Theologi- 
cal Seminary — Two  other  professors — Three  students — Results — Books 
for  sale — The  enterprise  not  successful — Novelty,  etc.,  etc,  "  waxed 
old  "—Great— Must  travel— A  delegate— Went  to  "the  Old  World" 
— One  difficulty  met — Made  a  good  sale  of  Beach  Street  Church  es- 
tate—Up town  now— 2,000  sittings— $90,000— His  building— Reli- 
gious light — Emblems  "  dedicated  " — Chafed — A  deacon — Arrearages 
— The  blessedness — Removals — The  day  of  trial — Succumbs  to  his 
own  crop^Numbers  reported — His  farewell — Tact  its  value — So  far 
as  he  preached  the  word  his  ministry  was  successful — "  Shady 
side  '' — Of  it  nothing  said — Engineered  a  Second  Boston  Presbytery 
— The  reader  can  determine — Rev.  W.  B.  Green,  Jr. — Installed — In- 
crease— Decrease — Roll  in  1881 — Faithful  preaching  indicated — 
Windham — Rev.  J.  Lanman  ordained — In  less  than  four  years  dis- 
missed— Rev.  C.  Packai'd — His  installation — Death — Faithful — The 
age  of  the  church — Its  pastors — Beading — Lynn— 'Rev.  A.  S.  Gard- 
iner, Reading — Installed — House  dedicated — Dismissed — Mr.  P.  M. 
McDonald  called — Ordained — Labors  in  Boston— Pastor  of  Reading 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  431 

clmrcli  and  of  Boston  chapel — His  prosperity — Eoll — East  Boston 
— De  Pew — Ackerman — Dr.  Kichards — Fitful  changes — Edward 
Annan — The  field  good — He  was  faithful — His  death — A  thing 
not  easily  done — A  want — An  agency — Rev.  E.  F.  Marston — His  roll — 
Springfield  Street  Church,  Boston — Some  active  men  purchased  an  edifice 
— Third  church  organized — Pastor  called — Settled — The  field  a  failure 
— Other  services  not  appreciated — A  redundancy — South  Boston  a 
failure — A  hall  hired — Services — Rev.  L.  H,  Angier — Rev.  Dr.  W. 
M.  Baker — A  house  built — Debt — Not  aided  as  they  ought  to  have 
been— Rev.  W.  H.  Sybrandt— Faithful— His  roll— The  German  Pres- 
byterian church,  Laurence,  Mass. — The  Rev.  Augustus  H.  Hager — 
His  roll  and  increase — Lowell — Vicissitudes — The  Rev.  Soltau  F.  Cal- 
houn— His  services — Rev.  R.  Court — No  other  in  the  city,  and  he  is 
prosperous — His  roll  and  increase — Providence,  R.  I. — Tlie  Old  School 
party  there — Advanced — Built  a  church — The  Gothic  contagion — 
Pay — Rev.  J.  Dickson  initiated — Rev.  T.  Parry — Some  change  their 
colors — Rev.  Mr.  Morrill  recently  there — Elders  report  a  roll — 
Connecticut — 18(58-1881 — Three  congregations  and  a  fourth — Encour. 
aging  continuations — Rev.  PI.  W.  Lee  in  Thompsonville — Nothing  un- 
usual— Short  vacancies — Dismissed — Rev.  F.  Shepherd  Barnum — 
"Working  force  efficient — Roll — Hartford — Erected  an  edifice — De- 
scription of  it — An  unhappy  change — Trouble — Courts  invoked — Pew 
patronage — The  pastor's  experience — "Seven  suits" — Mandamus — 
Pastor  continues — Congregation  increases — Roll — Stamford — Rev.  A. 
S.Twombly,  from  1868  till  1872— Rev.  E.  Van  Slvke— Rev.  R.  Vail 
— Installed — His  roll — Bridgeport — Rev.  H.  S.  Hinsdale  resigned — • 
Rev.  H.  A.  Davenport  succeeds — Installed  in  1878 — His  roll — Darien 
— Rev.  J.  W.  Coleman  installed — Resigned — Membership  in  1881 — 
July  7th,  1881,  Rev.  E.  P.  Cleaveland  installed  there — Huguenot 
Memorial  Church — Roll — New  Haven — Church  organized  in  1878  — 
On  account  of  financial  embarrassment  abandoned — Greenwich — Per- 
sons withdraw  from  Congregational  Society — Organized  April  26th, 
1881 — Elected  Rev.  Dr.  Sawyer  their  pastor — Roll — New  Boston,  N.H. 
— Rev.  F.  Allen,  pastor — His  roll. 


Each  of  the  last  six  quarters  of  a  century  to  which  our 
attention  has  been  turned,  we  have  begun  with  Old  Derry. 
In  our  last  we  saw  her  as  to  her  distinctive  principles  in 
doctrine,  government  and  worship,  extinguished  on  her 
own  soil  by  the  quasi  theocracy  supported  by  the  Athe- 
nian democracy,  which  gave  specific  identity  to  New  Eng- 
land, socially,  civilly  and  religiously.  Before  the  final 
spark  had  fled,  it  was  almost  agitated  to  procure  for  the 
germ  of  all  the  worth,  moral  and  material  of  this  old 
niother  congregation,  a  monument.  Hence  the  editor,  son 
of  the  author,  in  concluding  his  history  of  the  town,  says: 
"  In  regard  to  the  erection  of  a  monument  to  commemor- 


432  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ate  the  spot  on  which  the  first  sermon  was  preached  in 
Londonderry,  it  may  be  remarked,  that  much  interest  is 
felt  in  the  execution  of  such  a  work  at  an  early  day.  It 
is  beheved  that  a  shaft,  or  ol)eHsk  of  granite  may  be  com- 
])leted  for  from  two  to  four  hundred  dollars.  The  editor 
is  authorized  to  say,  that  the  sum  of  fifty  dollars  may  be 
considered  as  pledged,  provided  an  additional  sum  of  not 
less  than  three  hundred  dollars  is  contributed  during  the 
year  1851.  As  an  inscription,  on  the  front  side,  Isaiah 
xxxii.  2,  the  text  from  which  the  first  sermon  in  this  town 
was  preached  (under  the  wide-spreading  branches  of  a 
venerable  oak,  which,  for  more  than  a  century,  marked 
this  spot)  by  the  Rev.  James  McGregor,  on  April  12th, 
1719,  would  be  appropriate. 

In  1851  Presbyterianism  in  this  town  was  dead  and 
buried,  and  the  "much  interest  felt"  became  a  thing  of 
the  past.  An  apple-tree  is  said  to  mark  the  spot  as  a 
monument  of  their  Presbyterian  worth.  In  entering  on 
this  quarter  of  a  centm-y,  we  find  her  eulogy  pronounced 
on  the  one  hundred  and  fiftietli  anniversary  of  the  settle- 
ment, or  on  April  12th,  18G9.  The  orators  were  the  Hon. 
Charles  Bell,  Horace  Greeley,  Dr.  Taylor,  Professor  Patter- 
son and  others. 

The  compilation  of  their  speeches,  and  other  matter 
pertinent  to  the  occasion,  was  made  by  R,  C.  Mack,  Esq., 
of  Londonderry,  and  forms  "a  nicely  bound  book  of  124 
pages.  It  has  gone  into  the  hands  of  the  antiquarian 
stores,  and  is  held  at  high  prices." 

The  occasion  called  out  intellectual  powers,  which  it 
would  not  be  easy  to  surpass,  inherited  from  the  Scotch- 
Irish;  but  as  to  the  logic  and  sound  doctrine  of  "the 
oppressed  brethren,"  only  an  echo  remained.  There  was 
in  the  town  no  longer  "  the  voice  of  rejoicing  and  of  salva- 
tion, even  in  the  dwellings  of  the  righteous,"  after  the 
manner  of  "  West  Running-brook ;  "  no  longer  the  singing 
of  "  sweet  psalms "  in  the  house  of  the  Lord ;  no  longer 
"the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour"  in  the  pulpit,  which 
had,  even  then,  become  one  of  the  bulwarks  of  New  Eng- 
land theology  !  But  "  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in 
the  Lord." 

In  Londonderry  the  Rev.  William  House,  settled  Octo- 
ber 7th,  1857,  continued  to  be  pastor  till  February  26th, 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  433 

1873.  His  pastorate  appears  to  have  been  harmonious. 
The  generation  were  gone  who  required  doctrine,  worship 
and  affection  between  pastor  and  people  of  the  Rev.  David 
McGregor  type.  The  passing  audiences  did  not  receive 
and  hear  the  doctrine,  maintain  the  worship,  nor  feel  that 
affection.  After  two  years  of  spiritual  subsistence  on  sup- 
ply, the  congregation  called  the  Rev.  Luther  B.  Pert. 

He.was  settled  over  them  on  February  23d,  1875.  In 
his  ministry,  it  is  believed,  he  was  faithful  under  his  cir- 
cumstances, but  the  spirit  of  the  land  in  the  last  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century  overtook  him,  as  well  as  accumu- 
lating years,  and  he  was  dismissed  in  September,  1879. 

"  There  is  that  scattereth  and  yet  increaseth."  Whether 
it  is  religiously  so,  with  this  old  church,  or  not,  I  know 
not.  But  a  candidate  for  the  vacant  pulpit  was  told,  that 
fiscally  the}^  are  not  able  to  support  a  pastor,  even  while 
they  have  the  interest  of  the  nine  thousand  dollar  Pinker- 
ton  fund  by  way  of  supplement.  In  the  statistical  returns 
for  1881,  the  Rev.  Ira  C.  Tyson  is  reported  as  pastor  elect, 
and  the  membership  is  144.  So  that,  in  the  one  hundred 
and  forty-fifth  year  of  her  age,  this  church  is  fulfilling  her 
mission.  Let  it  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  in- 
scription on  Elder  Pinkerton's  tombstone  is  no  insignifi- 
cant force  or  factor  in  keeping  her  in  her  denominational 
position. 

From  Antrim,  N.  H.,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bates  removed  in 
1866.  "  For  a  year  and  an  half  this  church  then  lived  on 
the  variable  provender  afforded  by  candidates.  It  is  said 
that  about  twenty  of  these  poor  fellows  came  and  went. 
Some  of  them  were  desirable  men  whom  the  congregation 
could  not  command." 

On  January  1st,  1868,  Mr.  Warren  R.  Cochrane  (a 
graduate  of  Dartmouth)  began  service  here,  and  was  or- 
dained on  March  18th,  1869.  Having  "another  man's 
line  of  things  made  ready  to  his  hand,"  and,  in  1877,  a 
staff  of  six  "  deacons  "  (this  word  is  possibly  in  the  vocabu- 
lary of  the  land  used  here  for  ruling  elders),  being  now  in 
the  vigor  of  manhood,  he  is  prospering  in  the  Master's 
work,  returning,  in  1881,  a  roll  of  260  church  members. 

In  the  First  church,  Newburyport,  the  ninth  pastor,  the 
Rev.  Charles  S.  Durfee,  was  installed  September  8th,  1869. 
His  opportunity  for  leaving  any  very  permanent  impres- 
28 


434  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

sions  of  the  value  and  power  of  Divine  truth  upon  his  peo- 
ple was  short,  as  he  was  dismissed  on  July  29th,  1872. 

He  was  on  May  7th,  1874,  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam W.  Newell,  Jr.  What  his  antecedents  were,  I  cannot 
affirm,  but  his  pastorate  was  acceptable  and  successful. 
He  resigned  on  June  3d,  1880,  and  is  officiating  as  a  secre- 
tary in  New  York  cit3^  The  Rev.  Charles  C.  Wallace,  D.  D., 
the  eleventh  pastor  since  1746,  was,  for  years,  a  prominent 
orthodox  Congregationalist  pastor  at  Manchester,  N.  H. 
What  his  type  of  theology  is,  is  not  affirmed,  but  his 
beginning  has  been  numerically  very  favorable.  In  less 
than  one  year,  as  pastor,  he  reports  a  roll  of  321,  an  in- 
crease over  the  report  of  1880  of  47  members. 

After  continuing  as  a  vacancy  for  nearly  four  years,  the 
Second  Presbyterian  church,  Newburyport,  called  the  Rev. 
William  M.  Baker,  D.  D.,  who  was  installed  on  June  20th, 
1872. 

For  seventeen  years  the  mantles  of  Dana  and  Eells  had 
not  fallen  on  any  of  his  four  other  predecessors.  Their 
Presbyterianism  appears  to  have  been  of  a  very  mild  type. 
Consequently,  to  teach  and  uphold  the  doctrine  of  "  salva- 
tion by  grace,"  he  found  to  be  difficult,  and  he  terminated 
a  pastorate  of  twenty-two  months  on  April  14th,  1874. 

How  far  the  commercial  depression  (began  on  Septem- 
ber 17th,  1873)  affected  his  people  in  sustaining  ordi- 
nances, cannot  be  stated,  but,  from  different  causes,  they 
had  become  "  men  of  like  passions  with  others  "  in  the  re- 
ligious communities  by  which  they  were  surrounded.  Con- 
sequently, after  his  departure  they  had  supplies  for  above 
three  years.  Among  these,  one  of  the  Methodist  persua- 
sion, the  Rev.  J.  A.  Bartlett,  became  attractive,  and  was  in- 
stalled on  July  5th,  1877.  He  was  (in  his  way)  a  pro- 
gressive with  the  youth  and  the  less  informed  part  of  the 
congregation.  New  methods,  more  attractive  than  preach- 
ing "the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,"  were  employed  to 
allure  sinners  into  "the  kingdom,"  and,  in  a  few  months, 
those  whose  hearts  "  trembled  for  the  ark  of  God  "  had 
(after  much  trouble)  to  invoke  the  Presbytery  for  the  pre- 
servation of  their  ecclesiastical  existence. 

Men  in  the  ministry  are  at  times  "  held  highly  in  love," 
not  so  much  "  for  their  work's  sake  "  as  for  inferior  con- 
siderations.   So  it  was  here  by  the  inexperienced,  the  gay 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  435 

and  thoughtless ;  and  the  struggle  was  not  short.  Still  it 
was  terminated  by  his  dismission  by  the  Presbytery  on 
August  31st,  1879.  But  not  until  they  had  "  bitten  and 
devoured  one  another,"  and  became  extensively  "con- 
sumed." For,  in  1881,  his  name  does  not  appear  on  the 
roll  of  the  denomination,  while  the  congregation,  reduced 
to  a  membership  of  52,  is  vacant. 

Among  the  variations  which  occurred  during  the  first 
half  of  this  quarter  of  a  century,  we  have  to  note  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Rev.  James  Blair  Dunn  in  Boston.  He  had  in 
New  York  entered  the  ministry  (according  to  the  Rev.  Dr, 
Baird  of  his  own  Synod)  at  first  among  the  Methodists. 
He  was  a  ready  speaker  on  temperance  subjects,  was  re- 
ceived b}^  the  New  School  Presbyterians,  and  in  their  con- 
nection had  before  1868  officiated  in  New  York  city. 

The  congregation  in  Boston  gathered  by  the  Rev.  A.  S. 
Muir,  as  in  connection  with  the  Canadian  portion  of  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland,  and  cared  for  by  the  Rev.  John 
Ross  and  the  Rev.  Wm.  McLaren,  since  1858  had  from 
"  the  Old  School  party  "  enjoyed  as  pastors  and  stated  sup- 
ply the  Rev.  Messrs.  Magill,  Bixby  and  De  Lancy,  and  it 
was  now  vacant.  A  Rev.  Mr.  Cochrane,  then  resident  in 
New  Jersey,  was  wilUng  (it  was  said)  to  serve  them,  but 
took  exceptions  to  the  debt  of  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars, at  that  time  resting  on  their  church  estate  (purchased 
from  the  Unitarians  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Magill),  and  it  is 
said  recommended  his  friend  to  (as  they  were  for  years 
called)  "  the  Beach  Street  church  people."  Although  he 
had  on  previous  occasions  visited  them,  his  permanent 
services  began  with  September,  1868.  A  Mr.  Weston  had 
been  successful  in  walking  from  Maine  to  Chicago,  and 
from  this  walk,  by  drawing  an  allegory,  the  preacher  as- 
tonished his  hearers,  and  with  eacn  succeeding  Sabbath 
"still  the  wonder  grew,"  until  before  the  equinox  he 
had  become  the  man  of  their  choice.  The  Londonderry 
Presbytery  had  long  held  one  of  its  stated  meetings  on 
the  last  Wednesday  in  October,  but  in  order  to  expedite 
a  call  and  settlement,  by  examining  and  admitting  this 
gentleman,  for  a  certificate  of  official  standing  was  not 
then  a  sufficient  passport  from  the  New  to  the  Old  School 
division,  that  court  was  convoked  to  meet  in  Boston 
before  the  first  day  of  said  month. 


436  HISTORY   OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Of  the  members  from  the  rural  districts,  the  moderator, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  House,  of  Londonderry,  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Allen,  from  Marblehead,  attended.  A  working  force  was 
improvised  by  calling  to  their  aid  some  three  or  more  pas- 
tors from  the  orthodox  churches  of  the  city.  Dr.  Allen 
was  a  Calvinist,  "  a  master  in  Israel,"  and  Mr.  House  in- 
sisted that  he  should  examine  the  candidate. 

This  duty  fell  officially  on  the  moderator,  who,  but  too 
fairly,  represented  the  shrivelled  court  by  asking  as  a 
first  question,  "  Mr.  D.  Are  there  more  Gods  than  one  ?  " 
This  and  the  next  one  were  answered  satisfactorily. 

But  ''  the  decrees  "  disturbed  their  harmony,  and  "  the 
special  act  of  providence  "  in  the  twelfth  question  in  the 
New  England  primer  being  to  some  of  them  a  "  foolish 
and  an  unlearned  question,  gendered  strife." 

The  applicant  was  a  master  of  tact,  and  as  two  consider- 
ations pressed  upon  his  mind,  the  fear  that  he  might  be 
interrogated  through  the  book,  and  that  his  suspense 
might  last  till  "  the  going  down  of  the  sun,"  he  of  the  de- 
baters began  to  ask  questions.  This  flank  movement  pro- 
tected him,  but  it  did  not  stay  their  sectarian  rancor. 

"  Did  all  mankind  fall  in  Adam's  first  transgression  ?  " 
when  by  him  answered  aroused  in  some  of  them  "the 
wrath  of  man."  They  "  waxed  valiant  in  fight."  This 
could  not  be  controlled  when  it  was  asked,  "  Wherein  con- 
sists the  sinfulness  of  that  estate  whereinto  man  fell  ?  " 
Polemic  "  New  England  theology  "  against  Calvinism,  with 
the  aid  of  the  opinions  of  the  New  School  Presbyterian  ap- 
plicant, made  their  "  anger  fierce."  "  Brotherly  love,"  even 
of  the  type  of  "  Joab  and  Amasa,"  and  the  quasi  Presby- 
tery now  "shook  hands  and  parted."  For  when  the 
question  was  reached,  "What  is  the  misery  of  that  estate 
whereinto  man  fell  ?'^'  it  was  no  longer,  "  Blest  be  the  tie 
that  binds,"  but  the  termination  of  their  associated  work. 
They  fell  "out  by  the  way,"  and  separated.  With  this 
question  unanswered,  the  applicant  was  admitted. 

The  combatants  ceased  before  they  had  completed  "  the 
first  man  Adam  "  and  the  history  of  his  covenant. 

"  The  second  man,  the  Lord  from  heaven,"  although  it 
was  supposed  that  as  a  Presbytery  they  had  constituted  by 
his  "  power  "  and  "  in  his  name,'  they  did  not  reach. 

The  electing  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  his  person,  of- 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  437 

fices  and  work,  and  the  application  of  "his  redemption  to 
men  by  the  Holy  Spirit  were  not  overtaken. 

The  applicant  afterwards  gave  "  the  conclusion  of  the 
matter  "  to  the  late  Rev.  John  Brash  in  this  way :  "  They 
began  by  asking  me  if  there  were  more  Gods  than  one  ? 
and  left  me  in  a  state  of  misery.  In  this  condition  they 
admitted  me,  and  I  am  a  good  Old  School  Presbyterian." 

This  farcical  procedure  shewed  how  far  a  part  of  the 
actors  "  had  learned  Christ,"  how  far  they  had  "  been 
taught  by  him  as  the  truth  is  in  Jesus,"  how  competent  or 
otherwise  a  majority  of  them  were  to  "take  care  of  the 
house  of  God,"  and  just  to  what  a  degree  the  charity  of 
the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  will  subserve  or 
maintain  '*  sound  doctrine,"  promote  the  salvation  of 
souls  and  the  glory  of  Jehovah.  If  historical  truth  did 
not  demand  it,  gladly  would  I  say,  "  Publish  it  not  in  the 
streets  of  Askelon." 

Thus  admitted  to  Presbytery  and  placed  in  charge  of  the 
congregation,  he  spread  himself  out  in  eclectic  style.  Be- 
side the  one  hundred  and  ten  members  brought  there  by 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Bixby  from  the  Pine  street  orthodox  church, 
and  outlying  Presbyterians  gathered  in  by  his  predeces- 
sors, colonial  agitations  providentially  favored  him.  The 
confederation  of  the  provinces  forming  Canada  was  ex- 
ceedingly disagreeable  to  many  persons,  especially  in 
Nova  Scotia.  They  by  it  believed  their  prosperity  to  be 
retarded,  and  large  numbers  in  the  morning  of  manhood 
and  womanhood  left  their  Presbyterian  homes,  and  came 
to  Boston. 

Having  (in  man}^  cases)  no  well-informed  conscientious 
views  of  "  truth  "  and  "  sound  doctrine,"  much  less  of  "  a 
pure  offering  "  of  the  appointed  praise  to  God  in  worship, 
the  name  Presbyterian  was  to  them  too  generally  enough, 
while  they  were  well  entertained  with  a  teacher  in  "gown 
and  bands,"  and  associated  with  a  large  compound  congre- 
gation "  rejoicing  at  the  sound  of  the  organ."  He  praised 
the  people  for  their  gifts  in  prayer.  He  arranged  prayer- 
meetings  for  the  junior  men  and  women  in  juxtaposition 
of  place  and  time,  so  that  when  their  devotions  were 
ended,  they  readily  met  one  another. 

Beside  this,  a  committee  were  employed  to  see  the  ladies 
home.    For  a  Mr.  Philip,  who  had  left  his  betrothed  in 


488  HISTORY  OF'  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Scotland,  this  duty  of  continued  escort  lost  its  charms. 
He  would  not  "  be  won  by  the  conversation  of  "  the  ladies, 
and  he  left  them. 

This  pastor  entered  the  eclectic  ecclesiastical  field  so 
freely  in  his  arrangements  under  the  Presbyterian  name, 
that  in  addressing  his  people  once  on  a  convivial  occasion, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Angier,  then  supply  of  the  South  Boston 
Presbyterian  Church,  said  to  them,  "  You  here  in  Beach 
street,  are  substantially  Presbyterians;  you  are  part  or- 
thodox Congregationalists,  and  you  have  adopted  the  best 
parts  of  Methodism.  This  makes  you  a  strong  church,  and 
that  is  what  you  are." 

According  to  rules  noted  by  a  Mr.  Roe,  which  he 
adopted,  "the  pastor  considered  himself  the  executive  of- 
ficer and  leader  of  the  church,  and  every  member,  either 
as  officer  or  private,  had  something  to  do."  The  work 
was  arranged  in  twelve  departments,  and  the  numerical 
increase  was  very  great.  In  three  years  (according  to  Mr. 
Roe)  the  church  had  added  to  its  roll  the  names  of  six 
hundred  and  fifty  persons. 

His  process  of  reception  was  easy.  "  How  do  you  feel^ 
Mr.  A.  ?  "  answered  all  purposes  in  one  case.  His  require- 
ments for  admission  became  not  a  little  simplified  after 
the  reunion  of  the  New  and  Old  School  parties,  on  No- 
vember 12th,  1869,  when  an  "assent  to  a  creed"  was  no 
longer  considered  to  be  necessary,  excepting  for  ministers, 
elders  and  deacons. 

If  this  had  been  the  manner  of  the  Old  School  before 
the  reunion,  the  church  rolls  of  his  predecessors  might 
have  been  much  larger. 

He  also  employed  the  press  to  advantage,  not  only  by 
inserting  on  Saturday,  under  some  odd  designation,  the 
topic  for  Sabbath,  but  as  one  of  his  elders  was  on  an  ed- 
itorial staff,  a  scholarly  presentation  of  his  subject  was 
very  generally  given  on  Monday.  Beyond  all  this  ability 
in  ecclesiastical  administration,  his  financial  skill  was  su- 
perior. Here  he  was  "the  executive  officer  and  leader  of 
the  church  "  also.  Under  his  plastic  hand  the  finances 
increased  from  about  $2,000  previously,  so  as  to  secure  to 
him  in  three  years  $5,000  per  annum. 

"  Riding  the  whirlwind  "  of  prosperity  was,  however, 
easier  than  "  directing  the  storm  "  which  it  raised.    In  co- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  439 

operation  with  him,  men  of  substance  bought  a  church  es- 
tate on  Springfield  street,  over  which  (as  in  "  Beach  Street 
church  ")  he  endeavored  to  "  consider  himself  the  exec- 
utive officer  and  leader."  Men  are  creatures  of  opinion, 
and  others  did  not  thus  view  the  enterprise. 

The  loss  of  the  helm  became  a  heavy  strain  on  his  am- 
bition ;  his  "  strength  became  weakened  in  the  way,"  and 
with  his  phj^sician  (Dr.  W.)  he  made  his  first  tour  for  re- 
cuperation to  Cape  Breton.  As  "  nothing  succeeds  like 
success,"  not  a  few  ministers  in  that  region  consigned  their 
members  to  his  care,  and  to  him  in  autumn  they  came  by 
scores.  This  process  was  (during  another  summer)  re- 
peated with  success.  The  increase  of  his  charge  from 
all  these  appliances  was  decidedly  very  great.  So  much 
so,  that  an  intelligent  Calvinist,  from  Belfast,  told  the 
writer,  "  We  are  getting  in  large  numbers,  if  there  was  ony 
way  to  feed  them." 

He  had  not  a  few  who  were  ready  to  "  say  amen  at  his 
giving  of  thanks,"  but  one  of  these,  who  gave  more  de- 
monstrative evidence  than  others  (boldly  declaring  that 
*'  Mr.  D.  was  the  man,  every  sermon  which  he  preached 
converted  a  soul "),  after  a  few  years  thus  extolling  his 
pastor,  was  immersed. 

Not  content  with  the  duties  of  the  pastorate,  in  imita- 
tion of  the  Rev.  Charles  Spurgeon,  he  opened  a  theologi- 
cal seminary. 

Assuming  the  position  of  president,  from  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Hodge's  Lectures  as  a  text-book,  he  gave  his  weekly  pre- 
lections. The  Rev.  Soltau  F.  Calhoun,  then  of  Lowell, 
filled  the  chair  of  languages,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gardner, 
of  Jamaica  Plains,  as  a  third  professor,  supplemented  all 
needed  instruction  not  given  by  the  othei^s.  Three  pupils 
sat  "  at  the  feet  of  these  three  doctors  of  the  law."  One 
of  these,  trained  (near  d'Alsace)  under  a  parental  roof, 
where  family  worship  was  maintained,  "  evening,  and 
morning  and  at  noon,"  had  acted  as  a  preacher  among  the 
regular  Baptists  before  he  united  with  this  pastor's  church. 
He  had  also  sought  licensure  from  the  First  Boston  Pres- 
bytery. But  as  they  required  the  equivalent  of  a  course 
of  study  at  a  college,  he  withdrew,  and  not  knowing  that 
"  there  is  no  royal  road  to  geometry,"  he  sought  it  here. 
Work,  church  work,  Bible  reading,  services  of  song  and 


440  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

lay  preaching  were  now  in  vogue  extensively,  as  substitutes 
for  "  the  work  of  the  ministr}^,"  and  he  thought  to  transcend 
these  by  a  course  of  study  at  Beach  street. 

The  others  also  were  men  "  desiring  a  good  work,  the 
office  of  a  bishop."  The  grace  of  novelty  gradually  wore 
of,  and  as  the  professors  found  only  toil  in  the  enterprise, 
it  was  abandoned.  Mr.  A.  resumed  his  "  craft "  as  a  car- 
ver, Mr.  M.  his  "  occupation  "  as  a  carpenter,  and  Mr.  W. 
was  afterwards  settled  as  a  minister  in  a  Free-will  Baptist 
congregation  in  South  Boston  ! 

To  make  so  much  inculcation  effective,  Calvinistic  books 
were  entrusted  by  the  business  superintendent  of  the 
Board  of  Publication  at  Philadelphia  to  a  Mr.  F.  W. 
Walsh,  who  attempted  (it  would  almost  seem )  "  to  beard 
the  lion  in  his  den,"  by  exposing  them  for  sale  in  a  part 
of  the  "  Wesleyan  Association  Building"  in  Boston.  "Ar- 
minianism  had,"  a  century  before,  " become  respectable" 
in  New  England,  and  now  in  its  geometrical  ratio,  amidst 
its  varied  ramifications  and  products  on  the  common 
mind,  this  enterprise  could  be  but  a  little  more  hopeful, 
than  the  case  of  the  winter  traveller  on  the  uninhabited 
prairie,  when  he  strikes  his  last  match  to  kindle  brush  to 
keep  himself  from  perishing. 

Beside  Mr.  W.  a  saleswoman  was  employed,  wages  ran 
on,  the  sales  did  not  become  extensive,  and  the  enterprise, 
like  almost  any  other  instrumentality  Avhich,  there,  would 
bring  men  to  a  knowledge  of  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 
was  chilled  off.*  Mr.  W.  seems  to  have  been  a  failure, 
and  when  his  stock  was  scattered,  the  manuscript  records 
of  former  Presbyteries,  lodged  there  by  the  thoughtless 
custodian,  were  lost.  One  volume  of  them  was  afterwards 
discovered  and  restored  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Baptist 
persuasion.  Beside  this  volume  (as  their  clerk  informed 
me)  they  have  no  records  anterior  to  1869.  This  were  an 
irretrievable  loss,  if  said  minutes  had  not  been  copied. 

Novelty,  agitation,  sociables,  receptions,  concerts,  pic- 
nics. Roe's  arrangements  and  sensationalism  had  now  been 
invoked ;  but,  not  having  the  abiding  character  of  doctrinal 
truth,  they  ''waxed  old."     With  the  pastorate,  the  semi- 

*]N.  B. — ^The  books  of  that  Board  can  there  still  be  obtained  at  the 
Congregationalist  House  on  Beacon  street. 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  441 

nary  and  book-store,  beside  (for  a  season)  a  parochial 
reading-room  on  his  hands,  he  became  great,  and  to  re- 
cuperate, if  not  to  become  greater,  he  must  travel.  Hav- 
ing previously  persuaded  his  General  Assembly,  that  he 
was  the  fit  representative  man  of  their  denomination 
beyond  any  other,  to  appear  before  similar  church  courts 
in  North  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  the  equal  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Cuyler,  "  whose  praise  is  in  all  the  churches,"  he, 
early  in  March,  1872,  proceeded  to  Europe,  Africa  and 
Asia. 

By  weekly  paying  communications  to  a  good  paper  in 
Boston,  and,  of  course,  his  expenses  to  and  from  Great 
Britain  borne  by  those  who  sent  him,  his  expenditures 
were  not  severe.  In  the  meantime  he  garnered  enough  of 
the  "  Footsteps  of  St.  Paul "  to  form  many  a  popular  dis- 
course after  his  return.  One  difficulty  had  in  the  previ- 
ous year  crossed  his  path. 

Some  persons,  familiar  with  the  writings  of  the  late 
Rev.  R.  M.  McCheyne,  thought  they  could  trace  an  anal- 
ogy bordering  on  identity,  between  a  manual  of  that  au- 
thor and  one  published  by  this  pastor  over  his  own  name. 
Some  of  those  embarked  in  the  Springfield  Street  church 
enterprise  were  credited  with  this  discovery.  They  had 
now  refused  his  counsel,  and  went  the  length  to  say,  that 
in  that  church  they  "  must  have  an  educated  man." 

From  his  mission  he  returned  in  time  to  aid  in  making 
a  most  advantageous  sale  of  the  Beach  Street  church 
estate.  At  some  twelve  dollars,  or  so,  per  each  foot  square, 
it  brought  $115,000.  By  applying  to  a  judge  of  the 
"Supreme  Court  in  Chambers,"  he  sanctioned  the  sale 
and  gave  to  the  city  a  title,  while  the  city  attorney  de- 
clared, that  in  no  other  way,  as  Presbyterians,  could  they 
give  a  reliable  deed.  The  debt  of  $25,000  was  now  re- 
moved, and  the  city  afterwards  sold  the  part  not  taken  to 
widen  the  street,  for  less  than  five  dollars  per  foot  square. 
"  Up  town  "  had  been  the  idea  with  him,  so  that  he  might 
allure  the  dwellers  in  the  "  Back  Bay  "  mansions  to  be- 
come Presbyterians.  The  "  Court  in  Chambers,"  when  it 
created  for  the  city  a  title  to  the  church  site,  sanctioned 
their  occupancy  by  the  congregation  of  a  selected  lot. 
The  new  building  must  have  a  capacity  for  two  thousand 
sitters,  or  it  would  not  please  the  pastor.     After  keeping 


442  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

him  at  bay  for  a  year,  during  which  time  they  hired  a 
Baptist  church,  their  house  was  finally  constructed  to  seat 
twelve  hundred  and  forty  persons,  leaving  a  lot  unoccu- 
pied. Entering  the  market  with  ninety  thousand  dollars, 
and  having  the  material,  stone,  brick,  iron  and  wood  con- 
tained in  their  former  edifice  to  use,  they  ought  to  have 
completed  a  house  large  enough  for  anything  there  under 
the  Presbyterian  name,  but  it  was  otherwise.  The  struc- 
ture has  four  gables  and  on  each  of  the  north  and  west 
ones  he  placed  a  massive  stone  cross,  while  the  steeple 
was  carried  up  to  the  summit  of  the  roof  and  remains  a 
monument  of  higher  aspirations,  even  far  above  the  in- 
tended one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  of  spire.  Among  "  Bos- 
ton notions  "  you  can,  in  Boylston  street,  buy  "  religious 
goods."  "Religious  goods"  must,  in  order  to  glorify  God 
and  save  souls,  be  exposed  to  use  under  "  religious  light," 
and  they  cannot  all  be  placed  in  one  market.  Some  of 
them  must  be  put  in  position,  before  they  are  consecrated 
and  enjoyed  religiousl}^;  such  as  vestries  (2  Kings  x.  22), 
altars,  organs,  holy  water,  baldachins  and  bells.  Nearly 
all  others,  probably,  may  be  found  at  the  counter. 

"  Religious  light"  is  costly,  yet  two  large  windows  from 
the  street,  not  unlike  "  extravasated  blood,"  were  put,  one 
in  the  north  and  one  in  the  west  wall.  "  In  one  are  em- 
blems of  the  Lamb,  Bible,  Cross  and  Crown,  Alpha  and 
Omega,  and  two  fine  figures  of  Matthew  and  Mark ;  in  the 
other,  the  emblems  are  the  Cup,  Anchor,  Dove,  /.  H.  S.j 
and  the  other  evangelists." 

The  old  Unitarian  "  organ  became  essentially  new  by 
new  adornments,  frescoed  pipes,  greater  capacit}^  and  en- 
largement." All  this  was  "  dedicated  "  on  January  5th, 
1877. 

Failing  to  see  Presbyterian  scriptural  simplicity  in  these 
decorations,  the  people  allowed  him  to  extensively  use  his 
own  means  in  the  purchase.  This  chafed  him  anew, 
v/hile  twenty  thousand  dollars  more  had  to  be  borrowed 
to  pay  up  till  1876,  the  date  cut  on  the  house-corner.  On 
a  second  mortgage  six  thousand  dollars  additional  were 
obtained,  while  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  to  cover  a  "  float- 
ing "  debt,  had  the  endorsement  of  one  of  the  deacons  (a 
man  of  substance)  on  the  note  of  the  committee.  The  in- 
terest of  this  the  deacon  ceased  to  pay,  by  having  the  un- 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  443 

occupied  portion  of  the  church  lot  sold  for  two  thousand 
dollars.  This  relieved  him,  but  it  only  reduced  the  ar- 
rearages claimed  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  "  The  bless- 
edness they  spoke  of,"  and  the  "  plucking  out  of  eyes  to 
give  to  "  him  in  former  years  (Gal.  iv.  15),  were  now  float- 
ing into  the  past. 

Removals  from  the  city,  although  numerous,  were  not 
the  only  cause  of  decrease  in  his  numbers.  Popery  drew 
back,  perhaps,  but  one  of  those  taken  from  her  fold ;  the 
other  two  persuasions,  of  Presbyterians  a  few,  while  the 
Methodists,  the  Episcopalians,  and  several  of  the  Congre- 
gationalist  species,  such  as  the  Orthodox,  Baptists,  Ply- 
mouth Brethren  and  Unitarians  came  each  in  for  a  share. 

Trips  to  Florida  were  now  of  no  permanent  avail.  Dis- 
appointnient  was  upon  him,  and  his  health  failed  in  the 
day  of  trial.  He  had  undertaken  a  twenty-five  thousand 
dollar  enterprise  on  September  1st,  1868,  and  had  now  to 
succumb  to  the  crop  produced  by  the  seed  sown  by  his 
own  hand. 

To  his  Assembly,  in  May,  1878,  he  reported  a  church 
membership  of  1,100;  to  the  same  court,  in  1879,  he  re- 
ported 610,  and  on  September  28th,  1879,  he  preached  to , 
them  his  farewell  discourse.  Tact,  even  when  aided  by 
modern  inventions,  in  professedly  proclaiming  the  gospel, 
will  not,  without  "the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour,"  faith- 
fully preached,  be  owned  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  applying 
"the  redemption  purchased  by  Christ"  to  immortal  souls. 
In  so  far,  as  he  "  preached  the  word,"  his  ministry  was 
blessed  and  successful. 

Of  the  "shady  side"  I  say  nothing,  and  only  further 
state,  that,  in  1869,  he  engineered  a  new  Presbytery  into 
existence.  The  old  historic  one,  Londonderry,  having  ex- 
isted (off  and  on)  about  124  years  at  the  above  date,  he, 
and  those  associated  with  him,  were  pleased  to  have  called 
the  Presbytery  of  Boston. 

The  Synod  having,  jurisdiction  over  the  Presbytery  to 
which  the  Rev.  Robert  Annan  and  the  Federal  Street 
church  belonged  in  1785,  had,  on  July  11th,  1854,  consti- 
tuted the  Boston  Presbytery.  It  might  not  have  been  to 
eclipse  the  first,  that  the  second  one  held  its  stated  meet- 
ings on  the  same  day  of  the  same  month,  which  had  for 
years  been  chosen  by  the  other.     "  Peradventure,  it  was 


444  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

an  oversight."  How  much  increase  of  spiritual  volume 
and  power,  Presbyterianism  and  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,"  received  through  it  in  those  eleven  years  by  his 
instrumentality,  I  do  not  profess  to  say.  The  reader,  for 
himself,  can  determine. 

On  June  4th,  1880,  the  Rev.  W.  Brenton  Greene,  Jr.,  was 
ordained  and  installed  as  his  successor.  The  salary  was 
razeed  to  $2,000  per  annum,  and  the  church  (notwith- 
standing the  increase  of  its  debt)  when  vacant  rolled  up 
numbers,  reporting  in  May,  1880,  688  members,  or  an  in- 
crease of  seventy-eight  over  the  last  year  of  the  pastor's 
ministrations. 

While  all  the  Rev.  Mr.  Greene's  antecedents  were  most 
favorable,  and  his  future  is  very  promising,  yet  his  case 
shews  a  lack  of  judgment  but  too  often  witnessed  in  call- 
ing a  pastor. 

Instead  of  (in  this  large  congregation)  selecting  one  who 
from  years  of  previous  study  and  inurement  to  worry, 
could  *"  endure  hardness,"  the  inexperience  of  youth  was 
chosen  for  the  forefront  of  the  hottest  battle,  and  whether, 
from  the  continued  reaction  of  the  ''  Tabernacle,"  the 
turgid  state  of  the  previous  pastor's  roll  (if  purged)  from 
removals  or  deaths,  notwithstanding  the  admission  of 
thirty-four  on  examination,  and  fifty  by  certificate  (a  fine 
increase)  his  return  to  his  assembly  in  May,  1881,  was 
only  402,  or  286  less  than  at  his  induction.  These  results 
would  there  indicate  the  faithful  preaching  of  "  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  and  not  the  "  prophesying  of  smooth 
things." 

Windham,  N.  H.  On  June  2d,  1868,  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Lanman  was  ordained  over  this  church.  He  was  not  par- 
ticularly successful,  and  the  relation  was  dissolved  on 
February  6th,  1872. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Packard  was  installed  on  April  29th, 
1873,  and  died  on  February  20th,  1881,  leaving  a  widow 
and  three  children.  The  church,  during  its  existence  of 
one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  A^ears,  has  had  eight  pastors, 
and  he  was  the  fifth  who  has  died  among  that  people. 

Fifty -three  were  added  to  the  church  during  his  min- 
istry. As  a  pastor  he  was  faithful.  The  four  elders  re- 
turn to  the  Assembly  a  roll  of  136. 

In  his  days  of  upward  and  onward  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Dunn 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  445 

had  a  station  opened  in  Lynn,  Mass.  His  ambition  was 
to  "  hive  off  a  church  even^  year."  The  enterprise  was  not 
successful.  Neither  was  one  of  a  similar  kind  commenced 
in  Jamaica  Plains,  where  the  Rev.  Abraham  S.  Gardiner 
preached  for  a  time. 

He,  Rev.  Mr.  Gardiner,  then  ren^oved  to  Reading,  Mass., 
and  preached  some  seven  times  in  1872,  and  in  autumn, 
on  request,  took  charge  of  the  new  enterprise.  At  its  or- 
ganization, the  church  consisted  of  twenty  members. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Gardiner  was  then  chosen  pastor,  and  in- 
stalled on  May  7th,  1873.  Their  "  society  "  was  incorpor- 
ated in  June.  An  edifice  was  begun  in  October,  and  it 
was  dedicated  on  February  26th,  1874.  In  August,  1875, 
the  pastor  resigned. 

About  the  1st  of  September,  1875,  Mr.  P.  M.  McDonald 
was  invited  to  supply  the  pulpit. 

On  September  3d,  1871,  a  prayer-meeting  in  the  Gaelic 
language  was  begun  in  the  lecture  hall  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Boston  by  a  Mr.  Ewen  McDougall, 
assisted  by  others,  which  was  very  beneficial  to  scores  in 
the  city,  who  but  imperfectly  understood  preaching  in 
English. 

This  prospered  for  years,  and  as  it  was  the  mother 
tongue  of  Mr.  McDonald,  when  he  came  to  Reading,  he 
took  these  people  under  his  care.  When  he  was  ordained, 
he  was  installed  pastor  of  the  church  in  Reading  and  of 
the  chapel  in  Boston  (nine  miles  apart)  on  June  15th, 
1876.  The  meeting-house  in  Reading  cost  six  thousand 
dollars,  the  lot  and  one  thousand  w^ere  given  by  Mr.  B. 
Boyce,  and  the  pastor,  by  giving  five  hundred  himself,  was 
enabled  by  exertion  to  see  the  whole  amount  paid.  The 
attendance  at  the  chapel  on  Sabbath  evenings  has  in- 
creased yearly,  and  when  the  meeting-house  rented  from 
the  German  Reformed  Church  became  too  small,  they 
removed  in  1881  into  the  church  in  Springfield  street,  for- 
merly (for  a  season)  occupied  by  the  congregation  gath- 
ered by  the  Rev.  John  H.  Munroe,  now  pastor  of  the  Cen- 
tral Church,  Philadelphia.  The  pastor  reports  from  Read- 
ing a  membership  of  152. 

East  Boston.  The  Rev.  M.  A.  De  Pew,  who  was  installed 
July  11th,  1867,  resigned,  and  his  resignation  was  accepted 
July  12th,  1869.    The  Rev.  E.  P.  Ackerman  was  called  on 


446  HISTORY  OP  PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  same  day,  but  his  health  so  failed  that  he  could  not 
accept,  and  he  left  in  about  two  months.  On  January 
19th,  1870,  the  Rev.  Dr.  James  Richards  was  called.  He 
was  installed  on  February  9th,  1870,  and  his  resignation 
was  accepted  on  February  5th,  1872.  After  these  fitful 
chancres,  Divine  Providence  next  sent  to  this  congregation 
the  Rev.  Edward  Annan,  a  faithful  man,  and  much 
blessed  his  ministry.  The  field  was  a  good  one,  and  it 
was  well  tilled.  During  his  years  of  labor  here  (for  he 
had  been  previously  pastor  of  a  church  in  Halifax,  Nova 
Scotia),  his  health  tailed,  and  as  he  saw  his  own  "  strength 
weakened  in  the  way,"  to  the  .utmost  of  his  ability  he 
"ceased  not  to  warn  every  one"  to  be  "readv."  From 
April  2d,  1872,  he  "occupied"  till  January  10th,  1878, 
when  in  the  midtime  of  man's  allotted  days  he  entered  into 
rest. 

Churches  are  directed  to  remember  and  follow  the  faith 
of  those  who  have  spoken  to  them  the  word  of  God,  but 
where  "  an  Athenian  democracy  "  permeates  the  religious 
mind,  this  is  not  easily  done.  This  people  had  now^  to 
look  for  another  pastor,  and  while  hundreds  of  excellent 
men  in  the  denomination  are  "  standing  idle  in  the 
market,"  apparently  from  the  want  of  a  judicious  arrange-  * 
ment,  the  supply  and  demand  are  not  properly  at  all 
times  brought  into  contact. 

Hence  even  those  of  another  persuasion  may  step  in,  as 
did  Bartlett  in  Newburyport,  and  obtain  the  confidence 
of  a  people.  So  many  who  are  not  pastors  desire  labor, 
that  an  agency  is  kept  in  Boston  to  meet  supply  and  de- 
mand,' and  on  an  application  here  the  Rev.  F.  E.  Mars- 
ton,  of  the  State  persuasion,  was  obtained.  He  preached 
"another  gospel"  from  Annan,  but  the  children  (it  was 
said)  liked  him. 

He  obtained  a  call  on  October  1st,  and  was  installed  on 
the  14th  of  that  month  in  1878.  In  May,  1881,  he  reports 
a  roll  of  260  members. 

Springfield  Street  church,  Boston.  As  has  been  stated, 
some  active  men  connected  with  Beach  street  congregation 
in  January,  1870,  purchased  the  Congregational  church  on 
this  street,  then  not  occupied. 

In  it,  on  the  3d  day  of  February,  1870,  the  third  church 
of  the  Reunited  order  was  organized.    While  they  fully 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  447 

appreciated  the  activity  of  the  pastor  of  Beach  street,  they 
aimed  to  have  here  pulpit  talent  of  an  high  order,  and 
carrying  forward  their  purpose,  a  merchant  on  business  in 
Britain  went  over  to  Ireland,  and  hearing  the  Rev.  John 
H.  Munroe,  on  his  report,  when  returned,  this  congregation 
extended  to  him  a  call  to  their  pastorate. 

This  he  accepted,  and  while  he  brought  to  the  position 
unexceptionable  fitness,  it  was  at  an  early  day  discovered 
that  there  was  too  little  suitable  material  in  his  field  of 
labor,  and  the  future  there  was  not  bright  with  inducements 
for  him  to  remain  in  Boston.  After  making  "  full  proof  of 
his  ministry  "  there  for  sixteen  months,  he  accepted  a  call 
in  Philadelphia. 

This  congregation  had  also  the  services  of  the  Eev.  Dr. 
Wm.  A.  McCorkle  for  some  time,  and  did  not  expire  from 
the  want  of  talent  in  the  pulpit,  but  from  the  mental  and 
social  nature  of  its  surroundings,  connected  with  the  fact 
that  but  a  few  of  the  hearers  could  appreciate  tlie  talent 
which  they  enjoyed  in  the  house  of  prayer.  It  was  at  best 
a  redundancy. 

South  Boston.  After  the  failure  of  Claybaugh  in  this 
ward,  the  Rev.  John  Brash  labored  in  it  for  a  season,  and 
when  he  left  Presbytery  appointed  the  Rev.  George  Clark 
(pastor  of  East  Boston)  as  moderator  of  session.  He  was 
informed  by  a  man  of  promise,  who  became  a  failure,  that 
if  the  United  Presbyterians  placed  another  man  there,  he 
would  hire  a  hall  and  establish  an  opposition.  The  men 
employed  as  above  became  extensively  assimilated  to 
their  surroundings,  and  the  field  was  dropped. 

As  there  were  not  a  few  Presbyterians  resident  in  that 
part  of  the  city  who  found  it  inconvenient  to  attend  any 
of  the  churches  in  the  city  proper,  a  hall  was  hired,  and 
the  Rev.  L.  H.  Angier  labored  for  years  as  supply. 

After  the  church  was  organized,  they  extended  a  call  to 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  M.  Baker,  who  labored  among  them 
some  years.  His  subsistence  was  not  superabundant 
among  them,  and  eventually  separation  came.  They  also 
undertook  the  enterprise  of  building  a  place  of  worship,  in 
which  they  ought  to  have  been  liberally  aided  by  their  de- 
nomination, but  it  was  not  so.  Having  a  few  men  of  busi- 
ness and  of  substance,  they  obtained  as  pastor  the  Rev. 
Wm.  H.  Sybrandt,  who  for  years  has  occupied  faithfully, 
and  returns  a  roll  of  112  members  in  May,  1881. 


448  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Beside  the  English-speaking  people,  occasionally  Ger- 
mans are  collected  into  Presbyterian  churches.  One  of 
this  nationality  has  for  years  existed  in  Lawrence,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  in  May,  1881,  their  ])astor,  the  Rev.  Augustus 
H.  Hager,  presents  a  roll  of  127  members,  having  during 
the  year  1880  had  an  increase  of  fifteen. 

In  Loivell  Presbyterianism  has  had  vicissitudes.  After 
the  fiilse  pretenses  of  the  Rev.  John  Robertson  in  1868,  the 
Rev.  Soltau  F.  Calhoun  supplied  the  station  here  for  some 
time  in  1870-72.  But  his  services  were  not  acceptable  to 
all  his  hearers. 

They  were  more  fortunate  with  his  successor,  the  Rev. 
Robert  Court.  They  years  ago  purchased  a  place  of  wor- 
ship, and  as  there  is  no  other  Presbyterian  church  in  the 
city,  they  are  prosperous.  He  returns  a  roll  of  170  mem- 
bers, with  an  increase  of  twenty-six  in  1880. 

In  Providence,  R.  1.  As  we  have  seen  in  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century— 1843-1868— the  "  Old  School  party  "  occu- 
pied for  years.  Since  the  reunion  they  have  advanced — 
have  built  a  church,  and  have  had  ministerial  labor.  The 
Gothic  contagion,  so  prevalent  in  New  England,  of  build- 
ing God  and  his  people  out  of  doors,  they  have  not  es- 
caped. The  beam  out  of  the  wall  or  timber  cries,  "Debt, 
debt.     Pay  what  thou  owest." 

To  them  the  Rev.  J.  Dickson  came  and  became  initiated 
fully  in  the  labor  and  worry  incident  to  the  work  of  a 
Presbyterian  clerg3^man  in  New  England.  A  few  years  of 
such  a  peculiar  position  were  enough. 

After  his  departure,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Parry  served  them 
in  the  gospel  for  some  years. 

Not  only  the  fluctuating  character  of  the  Presbyterian 
population  in  this,  as  in  other  cities  in  New  England,  im- 
peded progress  in  the  work  of  the  kingdom,  but,  it  is  be- 
lieved, that  of  those  indebted  to  those  forces  which  unify 
the  Scotch  in  Scotland,  viz.,  the  Psalms  and  Shorter  Cate- 
chism, not  a  few  have  changed  their  colors  and  enlisted 
under  other  banners.  Social  life  has  its  forces  as  well  as 
the  gospel. 

The  Rev.  George  W.  Morrill  has  not  yet  had  oppor- 
tunity to  there  "  make  full  proof  of  his  ministry."  The 
elders  return  from  this  vacancy  a  roll  of  150  members  in 
1881. 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  449 

New  Boston,  N.  iJ.— At  this  date,  1868-1881,  the  Rev. 
Frank  H.  Allen  is  pastor,  and  returns  a  roll  of  137  mem- 
bers. 

Bedford,  K  H. — Vacant;  in  May,  1881,  the  nine  elders 
return  a  roll  of  141. 

From  South  Ryegate,  Vt. — Vacant ;  the  six  elders  return 
a  roll  of  107. 

Litchfield  has  one  elder  who  returns  a  roll  of  16,  and  re- 
ports two  adult  baptisms  during  the  last  year.  By  the 
generosity  of  some  person  they  have  an  annuity,  and  can 
obtain  supplies  for  a  part  of  the  time. 

Total  members  reported  by  Presbytery  of  Boston,  in 
Mav,  1881,  2,687.  Total  in  the  seven  churches  reported 
in  Connecticut  in  1881,  1,127.     Total,  3,814. 

Connecticut. — As  we  have  seen,  "  three  of  the  congrega- 
tions, formed  more  recently  in  this  State,  have  ceased  to 
exist,  and  a  fourth  has  joined  another  ecclesiastical  body.'* 
Yet,  in  entering  on  this  quarter  of  a  century  we  have  en- 
couraging continuations. 

As  successor  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Adams  in  Thompsonville, 
the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Lee  was  installed  on  July  13th, 
1869.  Nothing  unusual  marked  his  incumbency,  and  he 
was  dismissed  on  December  20th,  1873. 

During  these  short  vacancies  no  stated  supply  was  en- 
gaged ;  they  were  filled  weekly,  and  on  July  20th,  1874, 
the  Rev.  Frederic  Shepard  Barnum  was  installed.  Al- 
though Po})ery  has  control  over  a  large  percentage  of  the 
population,  and  other  denominations  have  societies  in  the 
village,  3'et  the  working  force  in  this  church  is  efficient, 
for  tliey  had,  in  1881,  a  membership  of  244. 

Of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  Hartford  we  have  seen 
the  history  for  seventeen  years.  They  now  (1868)  occupy 
a  chapel  at  the  cost  of  $17,000. 

Between  July  12th,  1869,  and  May  17th,  1870,  they 
erected,  in  so  far,  an  edifice,  leaving  the  tower  unfinished. 
"  The  building  is  of  Connecticut  granite,  with  trimmings 
of  Ohio  and  Portland  stone,  and  in  an  area  of  above  7,000 
square  feet  (or  123  by  57  feet),  the  audience  room  will 
seat  about  600  people.  With  an  organ  at  $2,800,  the  total 
cost  of  the  lot  and  buildings  (so  f^ir  as  finished)  was,  when 
opened,  $67,948.62  "  (or  about  $113  for  each  sitting).  That 
perpetual  motion,  "  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air," 
29 


450  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

while  they  were  occupying  "a  plain,  comfortable  brick 
building,  capable  of  seating  some  750  people,  and  well 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  congregation,"  i)erhaps  had 
notliing  to  do  with  this  enterprise,  of  changing  it  for  a 
seating  capacity  of  about  600. 

Here  pride  did  not  "  come  before  destruction,"  but  before 
trouble.  "  Contention  (was  now)  meddled  with."  The 
courts,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  were  invoked.  The  "Athen- 
ian democracy  was  in  the  mould  of  the  society  "  by  pew 
patronage. 

The  pastor,  being  a  Pcnnsylvanian,  supposed  that  the 
property  of  a  Presbyterian  congregation  should  (as  is  the 
case  generally  out  of  New  England)  be  under  the  control 
of  the  churcl) ;  but  trustees,  appointed  by  its  members,  in 
an  organized  capacity,  the  State  did  not  here  recognize. 

The  pew  parish  (or  society)  and  its  a})pointees,  not  trus- 
tees or  deacons,  chosen  by  the  elders  and  other  members 
of  a  church,  must  shut  or  open  "  the  doors  of  the  house  of 
God."  Tlie  pastor,  in  common  with  other  Presbyterians, 
profoundly  ignorant  of  the  fact,  had  to  "come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth  "  in  this  bitter  way,  in  which  not 
less  than  "seven  suits  have  been  instituted,"  and,  "in 
March,  1877,  the  trustees  Avere  sustained  by  mandamus.'^ 
It  is  not  easy  to  estimate  the  loss  suffered  by  "  pure  and 
undefiled  religion  "  through  these  unfortunate  proceedings 
by  which  Presbyterianism  has  here  l>een  "  wounded  in 
the  house  of  her  friends."  Still,  the  pastor  continues,  the 
church  increases,  and  in  1881  he  reports  a  roll  of  280 
members. 

In  Stamford,  New  School,  the  Rev.  Alexander  S.  Twom- 
bly,  on  April  30th,  1868,  entered  as  pastor,  and  continued 
in  office  till  Mav  1st,  1872,  followed  by  the  Pvev.  Evert  van 
Slyke,  April  23d,  1873,  who  officiated  till  October  6th, 
1875.  The  present  pastor,  Rev.  Richard  P.  H.  Vail,  was 
installed  on  May  11th,  1876,  and  to  his  assembly,  in  1881, 
reported  a  membership  of  297. 

In  Bridgeport^  Old  School,  the  Rev.  Horace  S.  Hinsdale 
resigned  his  charge  on  October  4th,  1877.  His  successor, 
the  Rev.  Henry  A.  Davenport,  w^as  installed  February  14th, 
1878.  In  1881,  to  the  Assembly,  he  reported  a  member- 
ship of  198. 

In  Darienj  New  School,  the  pastor,  the  Rev.  James  W. 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  451 

Coleman,  installed  March  4th,  1864,  resigned  his  pastorate 
January  4th,  1874.  Membership,  in  1881,  40.  On  July 
7th,  1881,  the  Rev.  E.  P.  Cleaveland  was  ordained  and  in- 
stalled pastor,  Huguenot  Memorial  church,  37. 

The  First  Presbyterian  church  of  A^ew  Haven  was  organ- 
ized b}^  the  Presbytery  of  Westchester,  March  11th,  1873. 
This  year  began  a  vast  financial  embarrassment,  and  it 
became  necessary  on  this  account  to  abandon  the  enter- 
prise. By  the  same  court  the  church  was  dissolved  on 
January  19th,  1875. 

At  Greemvich,  Fairfield  county,  thirty-two  persons  with- 
drew from  the  Second  Congregational  Society  of  the  town, 
and  they  were,  on  April  26th,  1881,  by  the  Presbytery  of 
Westchester,  organized  as  a  church.  They  have  since 
elected  the  Rev.  Rollin  A.  Sawyer,  D.  D.,  as  their  pastor. 
Membership,  May,  1881,  31. 

1868-1881— U.  P.  Church  of  Boston— Hopes  diminishing— Build  or 
abandon — Two  other  branches — Want  of  success — Xew  poetry  ad- 
vised— The  cure — Any  could  find  their  position — Inducements  to 
abandon  were  realities — Hindrances — The  flock — Resolved  (D.  V.) 
to  build — Lot — Church  and  two  dwellings  erected — Favorable  inter- 
positions— Trustees  of  the  Assembly — Reincorporated — Powers — Con- 
gregation prospered — Interest  and  debt— 1873,  commercial  depression 
— Churches  pray — Lindell  and  the  organ — "Musical  pioneer" — In- 
crease of  Popery  in  Boston — The  organ-loft  divides — Not  satisfactory 
— Moody — His  tabernacle — His  services — A  religious  lady's  view  of 
Sankey — An  unsettling  tendency — Moody's  "talk" — Newman  Hall's 
estimate  of  Moody's  results — Seed  sown  in  four  places — Resnlts — Two 
days'  attendance  in  orthodox  churches — No  supposed  aids  wanting — 
The  pioneer  Presbyterian  church  suflfered — Yet  it  stood  the  shock — 
Doctrine  taught — Versions — Garnering — No  surplus  veneration — Our 
debt — Its  consequences — Some  had  no  sympathy — A  goodly  price — 
This  tried  people — Trustees  and  Boards  to  report  in  1880 — Their 
plans  and  report — Pastor  must  go  and  pay  debts — Or  the  sale  might 
become  a  fact — Double  toil — An  optimist — The  congregation  aston- 
ished— None  asked  him  to  resign — Did  so  June  29th — Licensed  June 
28th,  1830 — Progressives  now  to  adopt  new  methods — Congregation 
had  been  prospering — Force  spent — Never  disabled  for  duty — He 
must  now  stop — Relation  dissolved — Not  to  disturb  he  removed — His 
course  of  pastoral  life  unusual — Nothing  popular — Only  the  riches  of 
Christ  and  the  word  of  God — This  the  Spirit  honors— At  the  end  of 
thirty-four  years  he  leaves  one  priest  and  two  Unitarian  doctors  in 
Boston  who  were  there  before  him — He  must  go,  for  the  increase  was 
less  than  some  other  years — This  not  so — His  disadvantages — His 
success — Boasting  excluded — Divine  appointment  reigns — Rev.  John 
Hood — Installed — Thompsonville — A  pastor  settled— Set  off  by  Synod 


452  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

to  New  York  Presbyter v — East  Boston — Kev.  G.  M.  Clarke — Trouble 
came — fie  sowed  seeds  of  discord — Tlie  clnirch  roll — East  Boston  and 
Hartford  dissolved  by  Presbvtery  in  1873 — Providence — Rev.  J.  P. 
Robb — Released — Mr.  M.S.  McCord  called — Ordained  and  installed — 
An  intelligent  people — He  makes  lull  proof — Roll — Fall  River — Rev. 
J.  R.  Kyle — Had  for  a  time  competition — An  Asyium — Rev.  J.  H. 
TurnbuU — Installed — Roll  increased — Wilkinsonville — Rev.  P.  Y. 
Smith — Continues  pastor — His  roll —  Whitinsville—'Rev.  R.  Hark- 
ness — The  })eople  not  peaceable — He  left — The  church  dissolved — 
Reorganized — Mr.  James  L.  Thompson  called,  ordained  and  in- 
stalled— The  church  prospering — His  roll — Lawrence — Rev.  John 
Hogg — Successful — In  harmony  with  the  "dissenters"  of  1867,  in 
the  McCune  case — McCune's  changes — Tried  by  church  courts — 
Leaves  Presbyterianism — Becomes  orthoilox  in  IVxas — As  "acting 
pastor'- — "Dissenters" — Who  sympathized  with  McCune — In  some 
views — Overtures — On  the  psalms — To  pave  the  way  for  organs — 
Tunes  prepared — Children  "clamour  for  sprightly  music" — Accom- 
modated— With  fragments  called  "Bible  Songs" — Actions  and  opin- 
ions— "A  very  serious  error" — The  demand  met — Overture  to  paVe 
the  way  for  organs — Mr.  Hogg  insubordinate — Mr.  A.  G.  McCoy's 
view  of  the  church — Rev.  John  A.  Burns  faithful — Dr.  McAyeal — 
His  view  of  versions — His  roll — If^ains  were  taken — The  old  version 
would  be  most  efiective — Presbytery  of  Vermont — Barnet — Rev.  John 
Seivice  pastor — Vacant — Rev.  R.  X.  Hammond — Installed — Con- 
tinues— Roll — Ryejate — Rev.  A.  Y.  Houston  pastor  till  1875 — Rev.  J. 
R.  Clapperton  installed — Released — His  roll — Greensboro — Vacant 
long — Rev.  A.  S.  Stewart  installed — His  resignation — Vacant — Roll 
— To  complete  we  require  information— None  would  then  be  unno- 
ticed— A  supposition — The  whole  membership  and  adherents — Others 
careless — Thousands  with  other  persuasions — Men  of  Israel  help — 
Who  will  care  for  their  souls? 

Boston. — As  the  United  Presbj^terian  congregation  of 
Boston  entered  on  this  quarter  of  a  centur}^  they  found 
their  hope  of  recovering  their  property  diminishing,  and 
the  alternative  was  presented,  build  an  house  for  public 
worship,  or  abandon  the  field. 

They  had,  in  twenty-two  years,  entered  their  seventh 
hired  hall  and  paid  nearly  ten  thousand  dollars  for  rent. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  other  congregation  in  the  city  w^ould 
have  shewn  equal  steadfastness  to  principle  under  so  many 
disadvantages  and  discouragements.  Two  other  branches 
of  the  Presbyterian  family  were  now  competing  in  the 
field,  and  in  two  divisions  (in  East  and  South  Boston)  they 
had  had  more  than  one  experiment  of  their  own  "  progres- 
sive" element  in  the  U.  P.  Church,  and  their  want  of  suc- 
cess, just  as  they  became  assimilated  to  their  surround- 
ings, in  doctrine  and  worship. 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  453 

Pastor  and  people  were  continually  urged  to  become 
more  popular ;  if  not  to  obtain  an  organ,  at  least  to  adopt 
new  poetry  to  please  the  floating  population;  to  remember 
that  "  the  days  of  the  catechism  "  and  the  psalms  were 
past;  to  say  nothing  against  any  error,  or  corrupt  system, 
at  the  risk  of  being  branded  as  bigots.  The  cure  for  all 
this,  however,  was  to  teach  the  people  "the  first  principles 
of  the  oracles  of  God,"  and  to  shew,  that  we  had  not  "  ap- 
pointed any  new  thing  contrary  to  what  he  had  com- 
manded;" in  short,  to  keep  pure  and  entire  all  such  "reli- 
gious worship  and  ordinances  as  God  has  appointed  in  his 
word."  Consequently,  if  any  were  dissatisfied  they  could 
find  their  position  in  one  of  the  varied  fields  of  dogma, 
lying  between  "  sound  doctrine  "  and  the  opinions  of  the 
advocates  of  "  advanced  thought." 

Still,  the  inducements  to  abandon  the  field  were  reali- 
ties. The  fluctuating  character  of  the  people  especially, 
who  in  many  cases  only  remained  long  enough  to  procure 
the  means  to  carry  them  elsewhere,  Wius  truly  discourag- 
ing. In  this  way  there  can  be  traced  into  sixteen  States 
of  the  Union,  the  difterent  Provinces  of  Canada,  to  Aus- 
tralia, to  Mexico,  to  St.  John's,  Antigua,  to  Ireland,  to 
London,  to  Berwick  upon  Tweed,  to  Glasgow,  to  Paisley, 
to  Perth  and  elsewhere,  individuals,  who  for  a  season  wor- 
shipped with  us ;  while  others,  indebted  to  Presbyterian 
training  for  their  moral  character,  the  basis  of  their  use- 
fulness and  material  prosperity,  when  they  became  no- 
ticed for  their  possessions,  were  in  some  cases  induced  to 
place  themselves  with  the  more  rich  and  gay.  Where 
such  persons  were  parents,  their  daughters  readily  "  went 
out  to  see  the  daughters  of  the  land,"  and  their  sons  easily 
"  pleased  themselves  with  the  children  of  strangers,"  in- 
stead of  seeking  "the  plighted  partners  of  their  future 
lives  "  among  their  own  persuasion. 

Among  the  hindrances  to  "  the  work  of  the  ministry  " 
here,  as  elsewhere,  mixed  marriages  were  not  the  least. 
In  all  such  cases,  as  a  rule,  it  is  believed  that  proper 
parental  training  "gains  much  harm  and  loss."  At  times 
the  children,  for  whom,  before  God,  angels  and  men, 
parents,  by  vows,  acknowledged  their  responsibility  at 
"the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,"  were  allured  by  some  other 
denomination. 


454  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

Other  inducements  to  abandon  the  field  were  not  want- 
ing, but  "the  flock"  belonged  to  the  Master,  and  although 
neither  rich,  nor  numerous,  they  were  not  only  valuable 
as  the  professed  followers  of  the  Saviour,  but  they  formed 
a  nucleus  for  future  fellowship  for  those  who  might,  like 
many  of  themselves,  yet  come  to  the  city. 

Here  we  were  met  by  the  fact,  that  it  was  hopeless  for 
those  then  and  there  in  fellowship  to  attempt  the  enter- 
prise alone.  Still,  we  resolved  (D.  V.)  to  ask  aid  and  to 
build. 

On  September  1st,  1868,  an  eligible  site  was  bought,  and 
in  due  time  a  building,  including  two  dwellings,  was 
erected.  The  house,  with  a  seating  capacit}"  for  five  hun- 
dred, was  opened  for  public  worship  on  February  6th, 
1870,  and  although  under  debt,  the  church  prospered  so 
far  as  it  was  possible,  when  the  pastor  had  very  often  to 
go  abroad  to  seek  aid,  while  he  ought  to  have  been  "  in- 
stant in  season  and  out  of  season  "  in  his  Master's  work  at 
home. 

Many  were  the  favorable  interpositions  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence seen  in  completing  the  enterprise,  and  affording  to 
the  congregation  a  quiet  resting  place  on  Sabbath.  While, 
under  the  ruling  of  Chief- Justice  Shaw,  trustees  chosen  by 
a  Presbyterian  congregation  were  incapable  of  holding 
and  enjoying  estate  for  their  denominational  use  in  Massa- 
chusetts, the  only  safe  course  was  to  invoke  the  official 
service  of  the  trustees  of  the  General  Assembl}'  of  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church  of  North  America.  This  aid 
the  Board  (afraid  of  "  inconvenience  ")  at  first  refused  to 
give,  but,  after  explanation,  in  them,  as  a  body  incorpo- 
rated by  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  the  title  vested ; 
and  when  it  was  discovered  that  their  agency,  as  a  foreign 
corporation,  was  inoperative,  on  proper  application  being 
made  by  the  pastor,  said  board  were  re-incorporated  by 
the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  and  authorized  to 
hold,  for  religious  use,  in  the  State,  property  to  the  amount 
of  three  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  congregation  con- 
tinued to  prosper.  The  Sabbath-school,  though  not  large, 
was  viewed  as  an  aid,  and  but  on  one  occasion  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  church  was  there  a  communion  season  observed 
without  some  increase.  Order  was  maintained  and  disci- 
pline was  but  seldom  demanded. 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  455 

To  meet  the  interest  and  reduce  the  debt  required  vigil- 
ance. Consequently,  when  the  commercial  depression  of 
1873  occurred,  the  congregation  became  unequal  to  the 
burden,  and  had  to  obtain  increased  assistance  from  the 
Assembly. 

At  this  time  the  "churches  of  Jesus  Christ,"  in  the  city 
and  the  country,  all  but  those  which  sung  psalms,  were 
"rejoicing  at  the  sound  of  the  organ,"  and  one  of  the 
"  craftsmen  "  desired  us  to  purchase.  As  history  should 
be  impartial,  I  here  present  a  vindication,  by  one  of  those 
most  familiar  with  the  manner  in  which  instrumental 
entertainments  promote  the  glory  of  God  in  the  salvation 
of  lost  sinners,  and  if  any  other  lover  of  "  things  without 
life-giving  sound  "  can  produce  more  cogent  arguments  for 
their  adoption  and  use,  let  him  do  so. 

"  Boston,  December  2Sd,  1873. 

"  Dear  Sir  : — Being  special  agent  in  getting  up  Bartlett 
and  Horsford's  Choir  Directory,  your  reply  to  their  request 
was  handed  to  me  on  last  Sunday,  in  which  I  read  some 
curious  objections  to  the  use  of  the  organ  in  the  house  of 
worship,  and  if  not  offensive,  I  would  wish  to  advance  my 
opinion  regarding  your  objections.  Knowing  scarce  any- 
thing of  the  doctrine  of  Presbyterianism,  save  a  little  in- 
sight of  the  history  of  its  origin  and  founder,  I  shall  take 
up  my  points  from  your  own  statements,  viz.,  that  you 
adopt  the  Bible  alone  as  authority  in  matters  of  faith. 

"This  I  judge  from  the  fact  that  you  abrogate  tlie  use  of 
organs  because  it  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  How, 
then,  do  j^ou  digest  thirtieth  verse,  chapter  twentieth,  and 
twenty-fifth  verse,  chapter  twenty-first  of  St.  John  ?  Here 
we  are  told  that  Jesus  did  many  other  things,  which  if 
written  all,  the  world  could  not  contain  the  books. 

"  Who  in  your  church,  with  a  faculty  for  appreciating  the 
sublimity  of  God,  with  only  ordinary  musical  taste  will 
not  say  on  hearing  the  beautiful  strains  of  the  church  or- 
gan, '  It  is  heavenly  ?  '     Hence  its  sacred  influence. 

"In  2  Chron.  verses  12th  and  13th,  we  are  told  the  Levites 
had  lifted  up  their  voices  with  trumpets  and  cymbals 
and  instruments  of  music  to  the  praise  of  the  Lord. 

"The  harp  is  mentioned  in  1  Chron.  xxv.  36,  and  has 
been  seen  in  mortal  visions  of  heaven.     Rev.  v.  8.    That 


456  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

'  the  Jews  will  not  hire  a  man  to  do  secular  work  on  the 
Sabbath  day '  may  be  true,  as  is  also  that  they  persecuted 
and  sought  to  slay  Jesus  because  he  had  cured  the  man  of 
thirty  years'  '  infirmity  '  on  the  Sabbath  da}- .  It  was  also 
in  this  day  that  Jesus  went  out  with  his  apostles  into  the 
corn-field  to  pluck  corn,  which  elicited  their  indignation, 
followed  by  a  reproof  from  him  for  their  blindness  concern- 
ing the  day.  If  Calvin  and  Knox  instituted  as  strict  observ- 
ance of  the  Lord's  day  as  this  doctrine  of  no  instrumental 
music,  fitly  may  the  words  of  the  Son  of  God  apply  to  them, 
*  Know  ye  that  the  Sabbath  Avas  made  for  man,  not  man 
for  the  Sabbath.'  It  is  a  day  for  good  works.  Is  it  not 
good  to  assist  in  producing  that  music  which  inspires  the 
souls  of  the  faithful  with  Christian  fortitude,  as  the  martial 
strains  of  a  national  anthem  on  the  battle-field  urges  the 
soldier  to  victory  ?  There  remains  still  the  most  serious 
moral  objection  in  your  eyes,  its  concomitance  with  the 
beads  and  holy  water  of  the  Romish  church.  These  out- 
ward forms  of  catholicity  appear  very  ridiculous  to  us 
sceptics,  stoics  and  cynics,  but  -so  also  might  it  appear  in 
the  present  age  of  the  progress  of  civilization,  if  Jesus 
Christ  appeared  to-day  in  our  midst  and  healed  the 
blindness  of  our  soul  by  ointment  made  from  his  spittle 
and  the  dust  of  the  earth.  Perhaps  in  a  crisis  of  said 
'  progress,'  the  application  of  the  water  of  the  river  Jor- 
dan may  be  termed  or  deemed  an  absurdity.  Congrega- 
tion a  Hsts  do  not  base  their  belief  on  antagonism  to  the 
Catholic  Papal  church,  but  regard  them  as  fellow-laborers 
in  the  vineyard  (hear  Rev.  Mr.  Wright's  views,  Berkeley 
street),  and  in  judging  for  themselves,  rejoice  in  every  con- 
formity with  that  church  to  which  you  owe  the  history 
and  preservation  of  Christianity  from  its  origin  to  the  six- 
teenth centurv. 

"Very  respectfully,  "  W.  M.  Lindell." 

Having  thus  for  the  instruction  of  the  reader  presented 
the  "opinion"'  ex  cathedra  of  this  "special  agent  in 
getting  up  choir  directories,"  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  let  the 
^^Musical  Pioneer  (N.  Y.")  for  June,  1865,"  speak  on  the 
homage  paid  to  "  the  sublimity  of  God"  by  "extraordinary 
musical  taste." 

A  more  correct  judgment  can  be   then  formed  of  the 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  457 

"  heavenly  character  "  and  "  sacred  influence  "  of  the  organ 
in  "  turning  men  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the  power 
of  Satan  unto  God." 

"  In  the  country  churches,  where  the  memhers  of  the 
choir  are  usually  members  of  the  congregation,  it  is  a  ratvi 
thing  for  any  of  the  singers  to  leave  before  the  service  is 
over;  but  among  the  singers  in  city  churches — in  the 
fashionable  well-paid  quartette — it  is  a  frequent  practice." 

"  In  Episcopal  churclies  particularly,  -where,  in  the  morn- 
ing service  no  hymn  is  sung  after  the  sermon,  it  is  almost  the 
rule  for  the  choir  to  sneak  out,  one  after  another,  as  soon 
as  the  text  is  given  out.  The  soprano  will  first  gather  up 
her  skirts,  perhaps  bend  her  head  a  little,  so  as  to  avoid 
the  notice  of  the  congregation,  and  step  gingerly  out  of  the 
organ  loft,  not  unfreqaently,  however,  sweeping  down  a  few 
books  or  upsetting  a  chair,  in  spite  of  all  her  care.  The 
basso,  having  no  skirts  to  impede  his  progress,  darts  out  a 
few  minutes  after.  The  alto  and  tenor  follow,  unless,  in- 
deed, they  prefer  to  remain  and  have  a  quiet  little  flirtation 
together  during  sermon  time.  The  organist,  having  to  play 
the  concluding  voluntary  (now  the  postlude),  groans  in- 
wardly because  he  is  thus  debarred  the  privilege  of  flight. 
And  how  seldom  is  it,  even  during  the  time  that  they  are 
in  the  house  of  prayer,  that  these  singers  pay  the  least  at- 
tention to  the  service !  From  frivolous  gossip,  from  piquant 
and  amusing,  and  often  unkind  criticisms  of  other  singers, 
or  of  each  other,  they  jump  up,  scuffle  round  to  find  their 
places  in  their  books,  and,  without  thinking  for  a  moment 
of  the  holy  words  they  are  to  use,  join  in  ascriptions  of 
praise,  which,  under  the  circumstances,  are  really  simple 
mockery.  '  We  praise  thee,  0  God  ;  we  acknowledge  thee 
to  be  the  Ijord  '  they  sing  with  meaningless  disregard  of 
the  import  of  those  noble  phrases.  '  They  praise  him  with 
their  lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from  him.'  From  mere 
thoughtlessness.  Sabbath  after  Sabbath,  they  break  that 
commandment  which  says, '  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name 
of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain.'  They  forget  that  the  Lord 
will  not  hold  tlK^m  guiltless  that  take  his  name  in  vain,  and 
for  all  this  '  inspiring  the  souls  of  the  faithful  with  Chris- 
tian fortitude,'  they  are  well  paid." 

According  to  "  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wright's  views,"  as  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Lindell,  Congregationalists  "  rejoice  in  every 


458  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

conibrmity  with  that  church,"  and  it  will  not  now  take 
more  than  a  prophet's  ken  to  see  that,  in  not  above  fifty 
years,  the  New  England  metropolis,  thirty-five  years  ago 
"the  Mount  Zion  of  the  whole  earth  "  (so  said  Dr.  King), 
may,  by  the  superior  "  faculty  for  appreciating  the  sublim- 
ity of  God ''  possessed  by  ''  the  Papal  Church,"  become  the 
most  intensely  Irish  "  Catholic  "  city  on  the  continent. 

In  1843  Boston  proper  was  reported  to  have  three 
churches  of  that  denomination.  In  less  than  forty  years 
these  have  increased  to  above  one  score,  exclusive  of  the 
largest  cathedral  and  the  most  capacious  residence  for  an 
archbishop  in  the  land.  Who  will  not  say  that  this  has 
been  accomplished  more  by  "the  beautiful  strains  of  the 
church  organ,"  "appreciating  the  sublimity  of  God,"  than 
(to  say  nothing  of,  by  an  open  Bible)  by  all  the  beads  and 
other  appliances  of  that  "  mother  church  "  of  fellow-labor- 
ers with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wright.  Jerusalem  may  not  have 
been,  nor  be,  the  only  city  of  which  "the  Romans  (may) 
come  and  take  away  both  the  place  and  nation." 

While  the  "  organ  loft,"  in  the  full  performance  of  its 
functions,  divided  the  attention  of  congregations  with  the 
desk,  denominational  growth  among  the  evangelical 
churches  was  not  in  Boston  in  these  years  satisfactory. 
Large  cities  had  been  visited  and  aroused  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  by  "Moody,  Sankey,  and  the  American 
organ,"  and  there  were  not  wanting  men  of  substance  to 
provide  for  them  here  in  due  time  a  "  Tabernacle,"  having 
a  platform  accommodating  about  one  thousand  persons 
and  a  hall  furnished  with  5,940  chairs.  On  January  25th, 
1877,  this  was  opened.  From  night  to  night,  for  months, 
the  utterances  of  this  energetic  man,  "  mighty  in  the  Scrip- 
tures," reverberated  throughout  the  building,  filled  to  its 
utmost  capacity,  while  others  could  not  enter.  And  then, 
if  those  who  made  the  concourse  of  sweet  sounds  had  each 
individually  "  a  faculty  for  appreciating  the  sublimity  of 
God  with  only  ordinar}^  musical  taste,"  the  presence  and 
intonations  of  two  organs  there  and  then  must  have  been 
(by  the  logic  of  Mr.  Lindell)  doubly  "  heavenly." 

These  "  sacred  influences,"  produced  by  the  singing  and 
playing  of  an  Arminian  "  master  of  song,"  ended  on  Sab- 
bath, May  27th,  when  the  earnest  man  gave  to  his  converts 
a  charge  to  unite  with  whatever  societ}^  might  seem  good 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  459 

to  them  individually,  but  to  take  care  that  they  did  not 
differ  with  one  another,  for  said  he,  "  Mr.  Sankey  and  I 
have  labored  together  for  five  years,  and  I  can  appeal  to 
him  when  I  say  we  have  never  differed  seriously,  while  I 
am  a  Calvinist  and  he  is  an  Arminian."  Mr.  Sankey  (a 
native  of  Western  Pennsylvania;  has  a  majestic  presence 
and  a  countenance  differing  in  many  points  from  the  aver- 
age man  of  those  by  whom  he  was  then  surrounded.  This 
attracted  the  attention  of  at  least  one  of  the  religious 
ladies  on  the  platform,  who,  when  the  Assembly  Avas  dis- 
missed, addressed  the  pastor  of  "  the  Old  South  "  thus : 
*'  Dr.  Manning,  I  have  heard  something  new  to-night." 
"  Quite  probable,"  said  he,  "  what  was  it?  "  Answer. — '*  I 
always  thought  Mr.  Sankey  had  a  very  Oriental  cast  of 
countenance.  Now  I  know  how  to  account  for  it,  for  he  is 
an  Armenian!"  The  Doctor  was  innocent  enough  to  tell 
this  at  the  laying  of  a  corner-stone  (to  about  one  thousand 
people)  the  next  day. 

On  February  10th,  1878,  Messrs.  Whittle  and  McGarra- 
han  resumed  exercises  in  the  Tabernacle,  and  on  March 
8d,  10th  and  17th  Mr.  Moody  officiated,  closing  his  labors 
in  the  structure  by  a  temperance  meeting  on  the  22d. 
However  profitable  his  "  forcible  "  arguments  and  "  riglit 
words  "  might  have  been  (as  they  doubtless  were)  to  many, 
upon  "  the  work  of  the  ministry,"  the  long  excitement  had 
an  unsettling  tendency. 

No  clock  can  always  strike  ten,  eleven  and  twelve.  The 
average  must  come  down  to  one  as  often  as  strike  twelve, 
and  pastors  felt  this.  This  is  not  all.  "Action  and  reac- 
tion are  equal "  and  often  inseparable.  In  such  cases  seed 
is  sown  by  the  wayside,  on  rocks  and  among  thorns,  as  well 
as  on  the  good  (prepared)  ground,  and  the  results  corre- 
spond. Those  who  "  brought  forth  fruit  with  patience  " 
continue.  But  the  effectiveness  of  the  pulpit  was  not  in- 
creased. "  The  work  of  the  ministry  "  was  less  appre- 
ciated, and  the  house  of  prayer  gradually  more  forsaken  in 
the  coming  months. 

» While  it  is  not  believed  that  the  churches  of  the  Baptist 
and  Methodist  orders  were  more  permanently  revived  than 
were  those  of  the  orthodox  Congregation alists  in  the  city 
proper — within  two  years,  in  1880,  the  attendance  was 
enumerated  on  an  average  of  two  Sabbaths  in  the  most 


460  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

propitious  church-going  month,  February,  and  in  the  ten 
orthodox  churches,  with  a  seating  capacity  of  above  10,000, 
there  worshipped  3,683  persons,  while  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Dunn 
returned  in  1878  to  his  Assembly  1,100,  and  in  1879,  610 
members. 

Nothing  of  the  supposed  aids  in  converting  sinners — 
preludes,  hymns,  choirs,  organs,  services  of  song  and  post- 
ludes — were  wanting  in  these  churches.  They  were  all 
abreast  of  "the  times,"  rejoicing  in  the  light  of  the  last 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  they  preached  their 
"  New  England  theology,"  yet,  Mr.  Moody's  "  overflow  " 
meetings  two  years  before,  after  the  "  Tabernacle "  was 
filled,  in  neighboring  churches,  at  times,  did  not  come 
much,  if  any,  short  of  the  now  stated  weekly  attendance  in 
the  ten  churches. 

"  Mr.  Moody  indulged  in  a  '  talk  to  ministers  '  not  long 
since  at  a  Northfield  convocation.  Among  other  things,  he 
advised  them  not  to  'talk  by  the  yard.'  It  was,  perhaps, 
good  advice.  It  might  not  be  impertinent,  however,  to 
suggest  to  Mr.  Moody  that  it  is  not  precisely  in  the  line  of 
his  calling  to  lecture  the  preachers. 

"  The  character  of  his  own  '  talk '  does  not  prove  his 
right  to  act  in  that  capacity,  and  if  he  were  put  in  the  place 
of  a  pastor  who  preaches  two  or  three  times  a  week  and 
does  a  man's  work  besides,  he  would  learn  pretty  quickly 
his  unfitness  for  acting  as  an  impromptu  professor  of  pas- 
toral theology. 

"  Nobody  likes  to  say  a  word  against  the  revivalistic  work 
that  was  so  popular  a  year  or  two  ago,  and  that  is  yet,  to  a 
certain  extent,  depended  on ;  but  facts  in  regard  to  it 
should  neither  be  denied  nor  withheld.  One  of  the  most 
earnest  men  in  London  is  the  Rev.  Newman  Hall.  He  is 
also  a  man  ready  to  take  hold  of  any  reasonable  method 
of  helping  in  the  work  of  the  kingdom,  and  will  not  be 
blamed  by  any  one  with  being  restrained  by  prejudice 
from  acknowledgment  of  a  good  cause.  He  has  been  re- 
peating recently  what  he  said  some  time  since  respecting 
the  results  of  the  work  of  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  fn 
London — that  it  was  not  permanently  of  great  value. 

"  Thus,  speaking  of  the  effect  of  it  in  connection  with  the 
admission  of  church  members,  he  says:  'I  hailed  that 
visit,  took  part  in  it,  assisted  in  the  "  inquiry  room,"  and  oc- 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  461 

casionally  preached  in  connection  with  it.  Some  of  the 
services  were  held  in  Surrey  Chapel,  yet  out  of  a  member- 
ship of  one  thousand  three  hundred,  we  have  not  three 
who  are  the  fruits  of  that  mission.'"  (^'United  Presbyte- 
rian,'' Pittsburgh,  Sept.  Sth,  1881.) 

In  the  meantime,  while  amidst  these  surroundings  the 
pioneer  Presbyterian  church  in  the  city  suffered  not  a  little 
by  the  popular  agitation  for  years,  still  duty  said,  "  Be 
steadfast  and  immovable,  and  "the  New  England 
Primer "  and  its  inculcations,  under  "  the  good  will  of 
him  who  dwelt  in  the  bush,"  stood  the  shock. 

In  teaching  the  doctrine  of  this  manual  for  above  thirty 
years,  the  matter  of  praise  in  this  church  had  ever  been 
"the  Book  of  Psalms  appointed  by  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  "  in  1650,  even  after  change  came 
in  their  own  denomination  and  the  "  revised  "  psalms  were 
in  order.  The  old  version  had  "  a  gnarled  vigor  "  (  Choate) 
which  the  others  have  not,  and  never  can  have,  and  could 
be  committed  to  memory  for  night  enjoyment,  or  for  blind- 
ness, for  journeying  or  for  the  bed  of  sickness  and  death, 
while  the  other,  as  cast  into  the  mould  and  peculiar  metres 
of  the  varied  sectarian  hymns,  has,  excepting  in  removing 
a  few  obsolete  words  and  improving  some  defective  rhyme, 
weakened  the  sense,  destroyed  the  dignity  and  beauty  of 
the  old  version,  without  adding  to  its  faithfulness,  by  sub- 
stituting a  depleted  and  impoverished  English  for  their 
standard  text.  It  has  been  the  attainment  of  many  for 
their  spiritual  profit  to  let  this  portion  of  "  the  word  of 
Christ  dwell  in  them  richly." 

Now,  but  few  persons  will  undertake  to  say,  "  Thy  word 
I  in  my  heart  have  hid,"  by  garnering  in  their  memories 
"the  words  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth  "  as  they  are 
here  set  forth,  revised,  and  increased  by  "the  multiplied 
versions  of  man's  taste."  Consequently,  their  numbers 
(above  three  hundred)  must  be  reduced,  or  the  coming 
generation,  finding  the  same  metres  in  modern  poetry,  will 
have  for  the  revisions  and  new  versions  no  surplus  of  ven- 
eration nor  love,  and  enter  other  folds. 

Our  debt  and  its  consequences.  Our  people,  being 
nearly  all  employes,  obtaining  small  wages,  and,,  in  cases, 
long  out  of  employment,  found  themselves  unable  to  con- 
tend with  the  debt.     Some  at  leasts  among  the  progressive 


r 


462  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

party  in  the  denomination,  had  for  the  enterprise  no  sym- 
pathy, and  proposed  to  have  the  Assembly  sell  out  the 
substance,  employ  it  on  spots  in  the  West,  and  give  the 
money,  toil  and  prayers  of  the  poor  here  to  the  winds,  so 
far  as  our  "  displaying  a  banner  for  the  truth  "  in  Boston 
(the  second  commercial  city  of  the  nation)  was  concerned. 
As  a  certain  field  was  valued  at  a  goodly  price,  so,  while 
the  property  cost  $40,000,  more  or  less,  they  could  sell  it  at 
least  for  $30,000,  pa}^  the  debt  and  clear  (beside  receiving 
back  the  aid  already  given  by  the  Board  of  Church  Exten- 
sion) $10,000  to  $12,000.  The  existence  of  this  tried  peo- 
ple as  a  Christian  church,  and  the  salvation  of  souls  here 
now  and  in  the  future,  were  secondary  matters  in  such 
minds. 

To  maturely  consider  the  case,  in  1879  the  Boards  of 
Church  Extension  and  Home  Missions  were  associated 
with  the  trustees  to  report  in  1880.  As  only  three  or  four 
of  these  persons  (twenty-six  in  number)  had  ever  seen  the 
field  or  the  property,  the  others  must  judge  all  matters  by 
a  distant  western  standard.  The  pastor  desired  to  have  an 
assistant,  and,  taking  this  into  account,  this  joint  commit- 
tee reported  to  the  Assembly  that  he  be  recommended  to 
resign,  and  if  he  did  so  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 
was  in  three  years  to  pay  one-half  of  the  debt,  the  Com- 
mittee of  Home  Missions  to  supply  the  preaching  for  five 
years,  or  until  a  pastor  was  settled,  while  with  the  rents  of 
the  dwellings  (about  S600  per  annum,  exclusive  of  taxes) 
the  congregation  were  in  five  years  to  pay  the  remaining 
debt. 

Of  this  recommendation  to  be  reported  in  May,  the  pas- 
tor was  informed  on  April  22d. 

This  he  must  do,  beside  removing  some  hundreds  of  dol- 
lars of  a  floating  debt  and  paying  the  architect's  bill  of 
$750,  or  the  sale  of  the  estate  by  the  sheriff  might  become 
a  fact.  After  twelve  years  of  double  toil  he  might  say, 
"  Save  me  from  ni}^  friends ! "  But,  as  an  optimist,  he 
"  knew  that  the  heavens  do  rule." 

This  committee  recommended  to  him  to  call  a  meeting 
of  his  Presbytery  to  receive  his  resignation  in  May.  After 
considering  the  case  he,  in  eleven  days,  replied,  that,  as 
the  ecclesiastical  year  of  the  Assembly  commenced  with 
July,  he  would  await  the  stated  meeting  of  Presbytery  on 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  463 

the  29th  day  of  June.  This  he  did  to  complete  his  fifty 
years,  as  he  was  licensed  to  preach  the  gospel  on  June 
28th,  1830.  When  he  had  to  inform  his  congregation  that 
he  must  stop,  so  that  "  a  new  man  with  new  methods  " 
might  step  in,  a  thunderbolt  out  of  a  clear  sky  could  not 
have  astonished  them  more.  No  "  roots  of  bitterness  were 
troubling  "  them.  Neither  the  church,  the  pastor,  nor  the 
Presbytery  asked  for  this  change,  nor  thought  of  it,  but  in 
the  above  way  the  debt  (it  was  supposed)  could  be  more 
than  paid,  while  the  progressives  would  control  the  field. 

When  one,  who  had  been  for  thirty-nine  years  a  pastor, 
said,  "How  can  you  endure  this?  it  would  break  me 
down,"  the  reply  was,  we  must  ''glory  in  tribulations." 
This  had  to  be  done.  The  elders  had  been  for  months 
thanking  God  for  the  prosperity  of  the  congregation,  and 
as  the  commotions  of  1877-78  had  spent  their  force,  hope 
was  in  the  ascendant.  The  pastor  now  must  shut  his 
mouth.  This  was  to  him  the  "lamentation  and  for  a 
lamentation "  the  woe  of  "  preaching  not  the  gospel " 
under  the  "  necessity." 

The  Presbytery  took  their  own  time  in  dissolving  the 
relation,  and  they  declared  the  pulpit  vacant  on  July  18th, 
the  pastor  (after  gathering  his  church  in  fourteen  months) 
having  been  installed  on  July  18th,  1847. 

Lest  he  might  in  any  way  be  a  disturbing  element  in 
the  prosperity  of  the  congregation,  he  soon  afterwards  re- 
moved from  the  bounds.*  To  moderns  his  course  of  pas- 
toral life  appeared  to  be  suicidal.  Nothing  popular,  no 
hymns,  no  organs,  no  choirs,  no  preludes,  no  postludes, 
nothing  sensational,  simply  "  preaching  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ  "  and  singing  "  psalms,"  to  keep  a  church 
alive  in  the  ver}^  focus  of  "  advanced  thought,"  immedi- 
ately beside  the  temples  of  Theodore  Parker  and  Thomas 
Paine ! 

But  God  honors  his  own  word.  In  the  last  twenty-seven 
years  the  pastor  saw  above  twenty  Presbyterian  ministers 
leave  the  city,  while  the  mutations  of  those  of  other  de- 
nominations were  superabundant.     Father  Fitton  and  the 

*  For  the  toil  of  twelve  years  and  private  funds  invested,  he  was 
allowed  annually  the  amount  now  paid  by  the  sexton,  for  the  inferior 
one  of  the  two  dwellings  in  the  church  estate. 


464  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

Unitarian  Doctors  Bartol  and  Freeman  Clarke,  were  the 
only  ones  left  by  him  there,  who  were  officiating  in  Bos- 
ton on  May  20th,  1846. 

During  the  last  year  of  his  pastoral  relation  the  aggre- 
gate average  increase  of  membership  in  the  denomination 
was  only  2.55  per  cent.,  while  his  was  13.76  per  cent.  To 
this  extent  God  was  pleased  to  "  work  by  him,"  (Acts 
XV.  12.) 

While  the  ten  orthodox  ministers  of  the  city,  in  preach- 
ing "  New  England  theology,"  had  (according  to  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Ouyler)  an  increase  in  all,  in  1879-80,  of  twenty  mem- 
bers, the  Calvinistic  preacher  keeping  "  the  faith  "  of  the 
New  England  Primer,  ignoring  all  "things  without  life- 
giving  sound,"  and  using  only  "the  Book  of  Psalms" 
(Luke  XX.  42)  in  Divine  worship,  was  honored  by  the 
Master  with  a  numerical  increase,  beyond  deaths  and  re- 
movals, of  nineteen  souls. 

"Boasting  is,"  by  Calvinism,  "excluded,"  yet,  it  is  law- 
ful to  say,  "What  hath  God  wrought."  Divine  appoint- 
ment reigns  in  his  service  and  worship.  Hence,  to  promote 
his  own  glory,  he  honors  his  own  appointed  instrumentali- 
ties exclusively.  To  all  others  and  their  "  new  methods," 
he  says,  "W'ho  hath  required  this  at  your  hand."  (Is.  1. 
11,  12.) 

In  answer  to  their  call  the  Rev.  John  Hood,  formerly 
of  West  Hebron,  New  York,  was  installed  pastor  of  this 
congregation  on  September  7th,  A.  d.  1881.  In  May  their 
roll  was  147,  it,  owing  to  the  varied  supply,  being  reduced 
11  in  the  year. 

During  this  period,  1868-1881,  Thomsonville^  Ct.,  sus- 
tained ordinances,  and  on  October  28th,  1873,  Mr.  Clarke 
McCracken  was  ordained  and  installed  pastor.  This  rela- 
tion still  pleasantly  continues,  and  for  convenience,  some 
3^ears  since,  at  their  own  request,  as  pastor  and  people, 
they  were  by  Synod  dismissed  to  the  First  U.  P.  Presby- 
tery of  New  York. 

Between  these  dates  East  Boston  run  its  course.  On 
October  8th,  1868,  a  call  made  by  them  for  the  Rev.  George 
M.  Clarke,  formerly  of  Nova  Scotia,  was  sustained.  He 
was  installed,  and  much  promise  seemed  to  be  in  the  en- 
joyment of  his  services  for  a  season.  But  he  could  not  be 
limited  to  the  use  of  the  Book  of  Psalms  in  his  pulpit 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  465 

duties.  He  i-)roved  to  be  so  much  attached  to  "  para- 
phrases "  that  trouble  came,  and  on  July  17th,  1870,  he 
resigned  and  went  to  Canada. 

The  congregation  were  in  good  working  order.  One 
generous  adherent  aided  them  fiscally  very  much,  and  did 
much  for  the  congregation  when  vacant,  but  it  was  in  vain. 
The  pastor  had  sowed  seeds  of  discord,  which  could  not 
be  rooted  up,  and  after  some  supply  for  months,  the  church 
roll  was  l:)y  Presbytery  deposited  with  its  own  clerk,  who 
was  authorized  to  give  certificates  to  those  entitled  to  them. 
After  years  of  delay,  on  April.  11th,  1873,  finding  both 
East  Boston  and  the  station  at  Hartford,  Ct.,  hopeless, 
Presbytery  officially  dissolved  these  organizations. 

In  Providence,  R.  /.,  the  Rev.  John  P.  Robb  had  officiated 
as  pastor  \\\\  the  U.  P.  church)  from  April  27th,  1860, 
until  1874,  when  he  was,  on  January  2d,  released. 

After  varied  candidates  had  teen  heard,  the  congrega- 
tion called  Mr.  M.  S.  McCord,  who  was  ordained  and  in- 
stalled on  December  29th,  1874.  With  the  morning  of 
manhood  upon  him,  a  willing  and  intelligent  people 
around  him,  in  one  of  our  most  prosperous  manufacturing 
and  commercial  cities,  he  continues  to  "  make  full  proof 
of  his  ministry,"  and  returns  a  roll  of  215  members. 

The  ministry  of  the  Rev.  Joshua  R.  Kyle  was  (notwith- 
standing a  want  of  attachment  to  the  principles  of  the  de- 
nomination) continued  from  April,  a.  d.  1867,  until  Sep- 
tember 8th,  1875,  when  he  was  dismissed  from  Fall  River. 

During  part  of  this  time  he  had  competition,  for  the 
Second  Roston  Presbytery,  on  October  9th,  1872,  "  ap- 
pointed committees  to  organize  churches  in  Reading,  Fall 
River  and  Providence  whenever  the  way  seems  open,"  and 
to  this  city  the  Rev.  Soltau  F.  Calhoun,  from  Lowell,  soon 
afterwards  came.  By  this  movement  an  asylum  was 
opened  for  seme  who  had  difficulties  to  brood  over,  but 
from  it  no  permanent  good  came. 

A  year  passed,  and  on  September  5th,  1876,  the  Rev. 
J.  H.  Turnbull  was  installed  as  pastor.  In  this,  the  first 
cotton  manufacturing  city  in  New  England,  for  a  genera- 
tion Presbyterians  have  abounded,  and  in  a.  d.  1880  the 
church  roll  was  increased  nine,  while  it  stands  in  a.  d. 
1881  at  169. 

In  Wilkinsonville  the  Rev.  P.  Y.  Smith  was  reported  at 
30 


46C  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

the  end  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  as  pastor.  There 
he  still  continues,  as  a  county  officer,  superintending  its 
educational  interests,  and,  as  pastor  of  tlie  U.  P.  church, 
"taking  heed  to  the  flock."  In  his  limited  field  he  re- 
turns a  roll  of  92  in  a.  d.  1881. 

In  Whitinsville,  Mass.,  the  Rev.  Robert  Harkness 
preached  from  January  8th,  1873,  till  April  22d,  1874, 
when,  not  finding  congenial  surroundings,  he  left.  Not 
so  much,  or  perhaps  at  all,  from  any  fault  of  his,  l)ut  from 
belligerent  manifestations  among  the  people.  After  re- 
ceiving his  resignation.  Presbytery  dissolved  the  church. 

It  was  re-organized  on  December  30th,  1874,  and  had 
various  supplies  until  Mr.  James  L.  Thompson  was  or- 
dained and  installed  there  on  June  11th,  1878.  Consider- 
ing the  limited  extent  of  the  field,  they  are  prospering  in 
all  things,  and  his  roll  numbers  88  members  in  a.  d. 
1881. 

In  Lawrence  the  Rev.  John  Hogg,  as  pastor,  officiated 
from  April  7th,  1869,  till  November  23d,  1875.  He  was 
successful  in  gathering  the  people,  and,  with  them,  in  ex- 
changing the  small  meeting-house  for  a  new  one  with 
modern  conveniences.  In  his  mind  the  lust  of  numbers 
obtained  a  preponderance  over  his  attachment  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  his  church,  as  he  found  himself  increasingly  in 
harmony  with  those  who  had  entered  their  "  dissent "  in 
the  Assembly  of  1867  in  the  McCune  case. 

That  man  (McCune)  had,  while  a  student,  imbibed  Con- 
gregationalism, and  the  Monongahela  A.  R.  Presbytery 
declined,  on  April  12th,  1854,  to  license  him.  He  was, 
however,  quietly  licensed  on  December  25th,  b}^  the  First 
A.  R.  Presbytery  of  Ohio,  and  ordained  without  charge  by 
that  court  in  January,  1856.  He  organized  a  mission 
church  in  Cincinnati,  to  which  he  preached  until  July, 
1867.  He  was  brought  into  the  church  courts  in  1866  for 
a  work,  which  he  published  on  church  fellowship,  and  the 
case  having  been  appealed  to  the  General  Assembly  of- 
1867,  it  was  then  decided  that  he  was  guilty  of  "holding 
and  defending  serious  and  fundamental  error  on  the  sub- 
ject of  church  fellowship."  He  then  united  with  the 
Presbyterian  church,  organized  a  non-denominational 
church  in  the  above-named  city,  wdiich  resulted  in  his 
trial  before  the  Presbytery  of  Cincinnati;  and  although 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  467 

not  convicted  of  positive  error,  it  shewed  his  true  views, 
and  he  transferred  his  relations  accordinfijly.  Espousing 
the  "  sufficiently  divine  "  ecclesiastical  polity  which  origi- 
nated at  Salern,  Mass.,  on  August  6th,  1629,  he  occu])ics 
at  Dallas,  Texas,  as  an  "acting  pastor"  {Congregational 
Year  Book,  1881)  to  23  members. 

From  the  "  decrees  "  of  the  Assembly  in  his  case,  there 
were  "  dissenters  "  who  sympathized  with  him  in  some  of 
his  progressive  views.  None  of  these  were  found  among 
men  of  experience,  and  "  the  spirit  of  the  age  "  demanding 
innovation,  the  church  has  hardly  })een  recently  a  year 
without  the  agitation  produced  by  "  overtures."  Psalmody 
was  tossed  like  a  weaver's  shuttle.  Revisions,  new  ver- 
sions, psalters,  selections  sent  down  and  reported  up  from 
year  to  year,  did  not  increase  obedience  to  the  Divine  in- 
junctions, "Take  heed  to  the  doctrine,"  "feed  the  flock." 
As  a  natural  sequence  to  agitation  about  the  matter  of 
praise  came  the  manner  of  rendering  it,  and  in  1876  an 
overture  was  demanded  to  eliminate  from  the  avowed 
principles  of  the  church,  sec.  5,  art.  2,  chap.  3,  of  her  Di- 
rectory for  Worship.  While,  in  1876,  this  did  not  obtain 
the  necessary  two-thirds  vote  to  send  it  down,  yet  it 
marked  the  progressive  force  of  the  "  dissenters,"  as  it 
stood  86  for  change  to  74  for  "letting  well  enough  alone." 

New  versions  of  the  Psalms  were  prepared,  not  for  psalm 
tunes,  but  for  such  tunes  as  were  popular  among  the  varied 
forms-  of  human  hymns,  10,000  of  which  tunes  (according 
to  Fitz)  have  perished  in  New  England,  all  the  offspring 
of  modern  tastes.  As  domestic  insubordination  aug- 
mented, as  family  worship  became  of  less  importance, 
children  and  youth  came  to  the  front  and  "  clamoured  for 
sprightly  music." 

To  this,  "  the  spirit  of  the  land,"  she  must  yield,  and  to 
make  the  hope  of  the  church,  her  children,  steadfast  United 
Presbyterians,  they  must  be  supplied  with  the  "rub-a- 
dub  "  applied  to  portions  of  God's  word.  As  the  "  138 
versions,  embracing  117  psalms,"  in  addition  to  the  former 
version,  making  in  all  301  songs,  were  obviously  too 
numerous  for  children  to  become  acquainted  with  them, 
and  especially  to  learn  them  as  portions  of  Divine  truth  ; 
so  150  selections  must  be  made,  and  "  what  God  had 
joined  together  man  must  put  asunder,"  and  call  the  frag- 


468  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

ments  "  Bible  Songs."  Of  the  General  Assembly  of  1881, 
but  one  man,  a  ruling  elder  (it  is  said),  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  preceding  one.  Consequently  the  action  of 
1879,  which  opened  this  flood-gate  of  childish  doing,  was 
not  fully  approved  by  the  Assembly  of  1880,  and  while 
they  could  not  stop  the  "  sprightly  music "  which  had 
been  written  or  selected  for  these  "  songs,"  and  was  scat- 
tered by  thousands  of  copies  prematurely  among  the 
churches,  they  appointed  a  committee  of  five  to  report  in 
the  case.  One  of  these  was  the  leading  musician  who  had 
for  years  led  on  the  "clamour"  (as  he  called  it),  and  in 
reporting  with  his  compeer,  said :  1."  It  was  in  an  emi- 
nent degree  such  a  book  as  the  Assembly  ordered.  2. 
For  14,000  copies  had  been  sold  in  five  months.  3.  It 
would  be  an  aid  if  used.  4.  Any  change  would  involve 
great  expense  in  the  purchase  of  new  music.  5.  It  would 
produce  confusion  and  look  like  trifling."  The  majority 
reported  :  "  The  principle  of  selections  is  '  a  very  serious 
error.'  1.  It  is  subversive  of  our  position.  2.  It  involves 
the  rejection  of  a  portion  of  the  psalms,  as  unsuitable  to 
be  used  in  the  Sabbath-school.  3.  It  is  an  assumption 
that  the  Book  of  Psalms  is  not  suited  to  be  a  system  of 
praise  for  children.  4.  Its  tendency  is  to  exclude  the 
Book  of  Psalms  from  the  church  in  a  few  years,  and  5.  Is 
a  mutilation  of  God's  book  of  praise." 

The  Assembly  authorized  the  Board  of  Publication  to 
publish  "  Bible  Songs "  to  meet  the  demand,  said  "  no 
farther  action  on  this  matter  is  necessary  at  the  present 
tmie,"  and  overtured,  "  Shall  section  five,  article  two, 
chapter  three  of  the  Directory  for  Worship  be  repealed?  '•' 
This  section  forbids  the  use  of  instrumental  music  in  di- 
vine worship.  A  certain  class  of  men  must  be  popular, 
and  this  innovation  Mr.  Hogg  did  not  discountenance  in 
Lawrence,  as  an  organ,  in  opposition  to  the  authority  of 
the  church,  has  been  for  years  used  there.  He  resigned 
in  November,  1875. 

Among  the  supplies  who  officiated  there  afterwards  was 
Mr.  Albert  G.  McCoy.  It  was  believed  that  an  unanimous 
call  would  have  been  extended  to  him,  and  when  asked 
privately  as  to  the  appearance  of  the  congregation,  he  an- 
swered, "It  is  a  Presbyterian  congregation,  and  a  good 
one,  but  where  the  '  United  Presbyterian  '  comes  in  1  can-; 


IN   NEW  ENGLAND.  469 

not  sec."  Among  supply  subsequently  sent  was  the  Rev. 
John  Auld  Burns.  His  health  was  not  good,  yet  he  was 
installed  on  August  4th,  1876. 

While  using  medical  means,  he  succumbed  to  "  Bright's 
disease,"  and  as  the  taper  of  life  grew  shorter,  he  "  preached 
as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men." 

Instead  of  trifling  with  modern  themes,  supposed  to  be 
"  abreast  of  the  times,"  he  digested  "  Ambrose  looking  unto 
Jesus,"  and  to  that  people  preached  the  gospel  with  all  the 
grace  of  novelty.  They  were  interested  and  edified,  but 
his  end  came  on  March  28th,  1878. 

The  Rev.  Robert  A.  McAyeal,  D.  D.,  was  admitted  to  the 
pastorate  of  this  church  on  January  21st,  1879.  He  not 
only  possesses  great  ability,  guided  by  above  twenty 
years  of  experience,  but  is  decidedly  "  abreast  of  the 
times,"  and  is  as  progressive  as  the  law  of  his  limitation 
will  allow  him  to  be.  Employing  "  Bible  Songs  "  (with  the 
organ  looking  on,  if  not  joining  in),  he  has  one  hundred 
and  fifty-six  scholars  in  his  Sabbath  school.  That  the 
old  version  of  the  psalms  were  best  to  be  used,  he  does  not 
believe,  but  affirms  that  in  order  to  gather  United  Presby- 
terians into  the  church  in  New  England,  the  "  new  ver- 
sion "  must  be  used.  With  this  opinion  his  returns  do 
not  correspond. 

In  1880  his  number  on  the  roll  was  200;  in  1881  it  was 
181.  This  may  be  to  some  extent  owing  to  removals  for 
employment,  but  in  all  United  Presbyterian  churches  in 
the  seaboard  cities,  the  "gnarled  vigor"  of  the  Scotch  ver- 
sion (wherever  due  pains  are  taken  to  explain  the  divine 
origin,  appointment  and  meaning  of  the  psalms)  is  most 
effective.  "  The  words  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth  " 
savor  more  of  "  the  simplicity  of  Christ "  than  do  the  same 
words  diff'used  or  contracted  through  the  enticing  words 
of  man's  wisdom  in  imitation  of  modern  poetry. 

United  Presbyteman  Presbytery  of  Vermont.  In  Barnet  the 
Rev.  John  Service  labored  from  i868  till  March  8th,  1877. 
They  were  then  vacant  until  February  19th,  1879,  when 
the  Rev.  Robert  N.  Hammond  was  ordained  and  installed 
pastor.     In  May,  1881,  his  roll  stood  at  139. 

In  Ryegate  the  Rev.  Alexander  Y.  Houston  was  installed 
February  13th,  1873,  and  was  pastor  till  February,  1875. 
On  June  10th,  1876,  the  Rev.  James  R.  Clapperton  was  in- 


470  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

stalled,  and  was  released  'on  July  3d,  1881,  leaving  a  roll 
of  ninety-seven. 

Greensboro  had  only  the  uncertain  subsistence  of  sup- 
plies for  several  years  until  October  23d,  1878,  when  Mr. 
Albert  S.  Stewart  was  ordained  and  installed.  On  Jan- 
uary 17th,  1881,  he  resigned.  They  are  still  vacant. 
Roll  in  May,  1881,  fifty-nine. 

Such  is  our  representation  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  of  North  America  in  New  England  in  1881.  The 
condition  of  the  churches  in  this  peculiar  region  is  attract- 
ing the  attention  of  thinking  men.  They  see  "the  gold 
becoming  dim,"  and  some  of  them  are  virtually  saying, 
"Consider  of  it,  take  advice,  and  ypeak  your  minds." 
Hence  (among  others)  Prof.  George  P.  Fisher  contributes 
a  most  suggestive  article  to  the  North  American  Review  for 
October  on  "  The  Elements  of  Puritanism,"  on  which  the 
editor  of  the  Evangelical  Repository  (of  the  United  Presby- 
terian Church)  is  constrained  to  say: 

"  The  introduction  to  the  essay  describes  the  changes 
which  have  taken  place  in  the  matter  of  praise  and  the 
manner  of  rendering  it  during  the  last  century.  If  it  was 
not  a  matter  of  history,  the  accuracy  of  which  cannot  be 
questioned,  it  would  be  hard  to  believe  that  New  England 
only  a  century  ago  was  so  sound,  sober  and  conservative 
in  its  religious  doctrines  and  modes  of  worship  as  it  un- 
doubtedly was.  Marking  as  we  do,  not  only  with  sur- 
prise, but  with  a  degree  of  sadness,  these  great  changes,  the 
question  at  once  arises  in  the  mind,  are  we  not  following 
rapidly  in  the  wake  of  New  England  ? 

"  We  trust  we  will  not  be  regarded  as  unduly  conserva- 
tive if  we  express  the  earnest  hope  that  even  in  ecclesiasti- 
cal changes  which  affect  only  the  outward  forms  of  wor- 
ship, we  will  not  press  too  rapidly  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
New  England  Puritans.  We  think  there  are  but  few  of 
our  people  who  do  not  feel  that  the  supposed  progress  of 
Puritanism  in  New  England  has  been  retrogression." 

To  this  editor  the  writer  would  say,  provoke  your 
brother  editors  of  our  other  United  Presbyterian  periodi- 
cals to  "  ponder  the  path  of  their  feet,"  and  to  them  sing 
the  Canadian  boat-song — 

"  Row,  brothers,  row,  for  the  rapids  are  near." 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  471 

To  complete  our  survey,  we  require  full  information 
from  Peacham,  Craftsbur}^,  Topsham,  West  Barnet,  and 
perhaps  other  places  in  Vermont,  where  there  are  members 
of  the  Reformed  persuasion,  but  after  earnest  requests  and 
patient  waiting,  replies  to  inquiries  have  not  been  obtained. 
If  they  had  been,  the  field  (New  England,  it  is  believed) 
would  be  fully  represented,  and  but  little,  if  anything,  of 
Presbyterianism  have  been  left  unnoticed. 

So  to  approximate  the  number  and  prosperity  of  these 
unknown  churches,  I  suppose  them  to  contain  probably 
200  members — possibly,  with  Ryegate  and  South  Barnet, 
400  members  in  all,  so  that  in  a  population  of  4,100,000 
the  whole  membership  under  the  general  name  will  be  in 
the  Reunited  Church,  3,814;  in  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church,  892;  in  the  Reformed  churches  in  Boston,  313, 
making  probably  in  all  about  5,400  members,  and  of  the 
population  some  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  souls. 

Beside  these,  it  is  believed  there  are  nearly  as  many 
other  Presbyterians  in  the  region  who  are  careless  and  un- 
cared  for — who  have  become  indifferent  about  their  souls' 
salvation,  to  say  nothing  of  the  thousands  who  have 
united  with  other  persuasions.  In  view  of  their  condition, 
their  prospects  and  their  doom,  they  may  say,  "  Men  of 
Israel,  help."  This  plea  and  petition  are  intensified  by 
the  fact  that  others  are  daily  coming,  and  will  in  future 
pour  into  her  commercial  towns.  Who  will  care  for  their 
souls  ?     Will  no  man  ? 

1868-1881 — Reformed  Presbyterian — Wm.  Graham  in  Boston — Increase 
slow,  but  more  permanent — Hired  halls — Presbyterians  suffer  less  in 
them  in  Boston  than  elsewhere — Began  to  build  in  1873,  and  under  their 
own  roof  February  15th,  1874 — Aid  called  for — Their  edifice  costly — 
As  Presbyterians  they  could  not  hold  or  enjoy  under  State  law — Tlieir 
numbers  now — Division — Second  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  in  Bos- 
ton—Never a  station— Rev.  D.  McFall  installed  July  11th,  1873— They 
purchased  a  church  estate  title — Self-supporting — They  were  un- 
noticed— Travestied  in  the  Daily  Neivs  and  by  the  Sun  as  a  ''queer 
religious  sect" — Above  the  average  amount  of  pulpit  power — Rev.  E. 
D.  Winslow,  who  ridicules  them,  himself  a  forger  and  a  villain — 
Some  men  their  sins  follow  after — Boston  as  a  field  for  these  queer 
folk,  and  their  success  looks  like  "the  burning  bush" — A  curious 
fact — He  led  the  court  for  wisdom — They  are  now  owned  extensively 
by  the  head  of  the  church  in  maintaining  the  Calvinism  of  the 
Puritans. 


472  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

We  have  noticed  the  gathering  of  a  Reformed  Presbyte- 
rian Church  in  Boston,  and  its  organization  on  July  12th, 
1854.  From  the  12th  of  July,  1860,  the  Rev.  Wm. 
Graham  as  pastor  "took  heed  to  the  flock."  The  increase 
was  of  necessity  slow,  but  this  contributed  to  permanency. 
In  common  with  others,  this  people  worshipped  in  hired 
halls,  but  in  Boston  (it  is  believed)  a  new  church  enter- 
prise will  suffer  less  in  such  places  than  in  any  other  city 
known  to  the  writer.  There  exists  no  air  of  sacredness 
about  such  a  place,  and  floating  persons  will  occasionally 
venture  in.  Still  changes  from  place  to  place  tax  attach- 
ment to  principle,  and  a  permanent  house  of  worship  be- 
comes a  necessity. 

This  pastor  and  his  people  began  to  build  a  church  in 
August,  1873,  and  on  February  15th,  1874,  they  com- 
menced public  worship  under  their  own  roof.  This  in- 
cessantly taxed  their  energies,  and  they  had  to  call  ex- 
tensively on  others  for  aid. 

In  such  enterprises  much  is  economized  by  having  the 
assistance  of  mechanical  skill  at  hand  to  determine 
values,  and  in  their  case  nothing  or  but  little  was  in  this 
way  saved.  Their  spacious  church  edifice  was  costly, 
still  they  have  been  able,  in  the  face  of  great  disadvan- 
tages, to  retain  it.  In  common  with  all  other  Presbyte- 
rians, they  could  not  hold  and  enjoy  their  church  estate  in 
Massachusetts  by  a  board  of  trustees,  and  their  tenure  is 
provided  for  otherwise.  By  being  "steadfast  and  un- 
movable,"  they  are  now  able  under  the  divine  blessing 
to  grow,  having  "  an  active  membership  of  two  hundred 
and  nine  (209),  with  seventeen  others  sustaining  to  them 
a  nominal  relation,  but  whom  they  do  not  count." 

We  are  not,  however,  to  suppose  that  for  twenty-seven 
j^ears  this  congregation  have  had  only  unbroken  repose  in 
their  associated  fellowship.  It  was  otherwise.  Individ- 
uals from  other  "  strait  sects  "  uniting  with  them,  intro- 
duced their  shades  of  opinion,  and  a  congregation  hived 
out  of  the  original  one,  in  which  separation  the  dislike  of 
persons  and  unwillingness  to  associate  with  them  was  prob- 
ably more  in  force  than  any  change  of  doctrinal  opinion. 

"The  Second  Boston  Reformed  Presbyterian  congregation '* 
was  organized  by  commission  of  the  New  York  Presbytery 
on  November  21st,  1871.     It  was  never  a  mission  station, 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  473 

but  always  a  self-supporting  congregation,  originally  of 
thirty  members.  As  a  vacancy  they  were  supplied  by  the 
Rev.  T.  iVE.  Elder,  of  Dayton,  Pa.,  and  others  under  the  ap- 
pointment of  their  Presbyter}^  On  May  18th,  1871,  the 
Rev.  David  McFall  was  settled  at  Oil  City,  Pa.,  and  on  re- 
ceiving a  call,  was  translated  to  Boston  and  installed  on 
July  11th,  1873. 

In  abandoning  hired  halls  they  had  some  advantage,  as 
they  were  enabled  in  October,  1879,  to  purchase  at  a  low 
price  a  good  church  edifice,  one  built  by  and  for  years 
owned  by  the  orthodox,  from  which  the  occupants  had 
hived  to  fill  the  empty  seats  protfered  to  them  under  the 
ministry  of  the  successor  of  the  late  Rev.  E.  N.  Kirk,  D.  D. 
Here  also  title  must  vest  in  individuals,  for  as  Presby- 
terians, to  say  nothing  of  their  want  of  citizenship,  they 
could  not  as  a  church  hold  or  enjoy  real  estate  in  Boston, 
for  the  worship  of  God.  As  they  were  self-supporting 
when  only  thirty  strong,  they  are  not  less  so  now  when 
they  number  one  hundred  and  four  active  members.  Be- 
fore noticing  their  growth  amidst  their  surroundings, 
it  must  be  observed  that  by  the  hymn-singing  community 
they  were  unnoticed  and  unknown.  Hence  a  Boston 
paper,  the  Daily  News,  in  1872,  with  the  New  York  Sun, 
thus  travesties  them : 

"  There  is  a  queer  religious  sect  in  St.  Louis,  called 
among  themselves  by  the  honored  name  of  Covenanters — 
to  which  they  doubtless  have  no  right — although  not  so 
designated  in  the  list  of  churches  given  in  the  City  Direc- 
tory. Its  members  are  not  allowed  to  exercise  the  right  of 
suffrage;  but  there  is  nothing  in  their  belief  to  prevent 
them  from  holding  office  when  they  are  afforded  the  op- 
portunity, and  several  of  them  enjoy  snug  positions  under 
the  city  and  county  governments.  A  member  who  marries 
outside  of  the  pale  of  the  church  is  at  once  excommuni- 
cated. Recently  a  son  of  one  of  the  most  prominent  lead- 
ers of  the  faith  came  of  age,  and  celebrated  his  accession  to 
the  dignity  of  manhood  b}^  voting,  like  a  good  citizen,  at 
the  next  election.  Whereupon  the  church  took  action, 
and  cast  him  from  among  them  as  unworthy  of  fellowship. 
But  an  elder,  who  was  shortly  afterward  proven  guilty  of 
gross  immorality,  was  permitted  to  retain  both  his  mem- 
bership and  his  office." — N.  Y.  Sun. 


474  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

That  any  man  should  publish  a  paper  in  New  York, 
where  some  of  much  above  the  average  amount  of  pulpit 
power  has  been  and  is  wielded  by  Doctors  of  Divinity  be- 
longing to  this  "  queer  religious  sect,"  and  ignore  them  be- 
cause a  cent  a  liner  reports  them  tlius,  only  shews  how  far 
such  professed  elevators  of  human  character  as  editors  are 
qualified  for  the  position  they  assume.  Beyond  this  we 
must  look  at  the  light  cast  on  the  Covenanters  in  Boston 
in  this  scrap,  copied  by  the  immaculate  Rev.  E.  D.  Wins- 
low,  a  Methodist  preaciier,  who,  on  Sabbath,  January  9th, 
1876,  after  inculcating  Arminianism  in  Auburndale,  Mass., 
left  his  Daily  News  and  fled  for  Holland,  where,  if  once 
reached,  no  extradition  treaty  would  return  him  to  be 
"proven  guilty  of  gross  immorality." 

Into  the  account  must  be  here  taken,  however,  his  belief 
in  "  falling  from  grace,"  which  he  might  recover  again,  as 
he  was  a  forger  (it  was  published)  only  to  the  extent  of 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  "  Some  men's  sins  are 
open  beforehand,  going  before  to  judgment;  and  some  men 
they  follow  after." 

When  we  look  at  Boston  as  a  field,  where  only  "  ten  per 
cent,  of  the  population  are  Protestant  evangelical,"  and 
then  at  this  "  queer  religious  sect "  preaching  Calvinism 
and  singing  "  Rouse,"  it  appears  very  much  as  if  "  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  were  in  the  midst  of  the  bush,"  especially 
as  it  not  only  is  not  consumed,  but  grows.  It  is  also  a 
curious  fact  that  the  oldest  pastor  of  this  "  queer  religious 
sect "  in  Boston  should  be,  as  he  probably  is,  the  only  Pres- 
byterian minister  in  Massachusetts  who  has  with  prayer, 
opened  the  Supreme  Court  of  a  State  in  which,  from  the 
first,  "  an  Athenian  democracy  was  in  its  mould,"  and  yet 
be  unknown  to  or  ignored  by  the  press  of  the  cities. 

His  residence  is  opposite  to  the  court  house  of  Middlesex 
county  in  East  Cambridge,  and  as  another  at  the  appointed 
time  did  not  appear,  ou  request,  he  led  the  court,  bar  and 
jury  to  the  throne  of  grace  in  prayer,  that  wisdom  might 
descend  upon  "  the  powers  that  be."  On  his  part  here 
there  was  no  intense  bigotr}^  although  he  belongs  to  that 
"  queer  religious  sect "  which  are  now  owned  more  exten- 
sively in  Boston  by  the  Head  of  the  church  than  any 
other  in  maintaining  the  Calvinism  of  the  Pilgrims  and 
Puritans,  which  in  former  generations  made  New  England 
"  a  praise  in  the  earth." 


IN    NEW    ENGLAND.  475 

In  Vermont  Since  1868,  at  Ryegate,  the  Rev.  James  M. 
Beattie  continues  to  officiate  acceptably,  seeing  the  pleasure 
of  the  Lord  still  prospering  in  his  hand.  He  returns  in 
A.  D.  1881  a  roll  of  69  members ;  Rev.  J.  C.  Taylor,  East 
Craftsbury,  69 ;  Rev.  D.  C.  Faris,  Barnet,  79 ;  Rev.  J.  C.  K. 
Faris,  Topsham,  37 ;  Rev.  W.  R.  Laird,  St.  Johnsbury,  63; 
total,  317  members. 

Conclusion. 

If  we  have  done  well — Semi-separatists — Calvin — Great  persons — A  few 
small  accidental  points — Their  church  polity — Presbyterian — In  wor- 
ship— In  Europe  no  opportunity — Before  they  land  they  establish 
civil  government — What  it  was — The  governor's  message — The  con- 
tract— The  reco'rd  in  the  French  church  in  Boston — Thence  taken  as 
loot — An  account  of  it — Mr.  Scott  suggests — Honor  due  to  these  Pres- 
byterians— Their  names  the  acorn — Did  not  undertake  to  reform — As 
the  chaplains  did — Nor  trifle — Elder  Brewster — Protecting  their 
homes — In  time  became  assimilated — To  the  Bay  people — To  them  we 
revert — Congregationalism — Wliere  born — Its  nature  and  tendency — 
Intolerant — Leavening  other  denominations — Unsettling  fixed  truth — 
Its  ''unjustifiable  restraints" — Their  polity  sketched — Koger  Wil- 
liams —  Baptists  —  Quak  ers  —  Papists  —  Episcopal  Methodists — Blas- 
phemy— Voted  the  Trinity  out — Less  aggressive — Adequate  inspira- 
tion— Advanced  thought — Success  of  the  chaplains  among  Episcopal- 
ians— Restraints  on  Presbyterianism — New  England  system  the 
creature  of  ''circumstances" — Proof — "SuflBciently  divine" — Now 
diffusive — "Tastes" — A  germ — A  delight  to  some — Its  legitimate  de- 
ductions make  an  "  unknown  quantity  " — Not  all  of  darkness — IMany 
among  the  elect — Systems  only — Transmitted  from  minds — It  has 
swept  around  the  circle — Marriage  relation  assailed — Divorce — Com- 
mon— Governor  Andrew — Single  blessedness-^ — Bare  productions — 
Mormonism — Its  origin — Influences — A  new  inspiration — "Golden 
tablets" — Smith — Insubordination  increasing — As  a  system  built  on 
"circumstances" — It  imbues  Presbyterianism — Not  multiplying  the 
Baints — To  the  rear — Its  pew  power — Systematized  in  New  York — In 
conclusion — Separating  ourselves — We  should  remember  the  Divine 
origin  of  our  polity — Its  cost  to  others — Its  valuable  influences — This 
is  our  duty — Let  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  future  be  marked 
by  teaching  the  word — An  imperative  necessity — Sabbath  school  may 
be  uncertain — Worse  than  useless — "Sunday  books" — Superficial 
ideas — The  hope — The  parental  vow — Its  meaning — Acting  by  proxy 
— Ignorant — A  subterfuge — Answered — The  right  use  of  a  help  so 
valuable — A  unitary  influence — Seek  to  popularize  services — Singing 
— A  heathen's  view — The  farce — Knox  and  his  singers — Application 
— Depriving  the  masses — Saddening — Some  get  music  to  suit  them 
elsewhere — Mixed  multitudes — Such  acquisitions — The  genuine  arti- 
cle— With  these  considerations  we  close — The  scene  not  joyous — After 
an  experiment  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years — It  impairs  the  force  of 


476  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

truth — Waxing  feeble — Thirty-three  Presbyterian  congregations — 
Orthodox,  the  number  of — Loss  in  1880 — Descending  node — Presby- 
terianism  gravitating  also — Said,  not  intrude — The  command  is  go — 
Bible  not  the  hold  now  on  the  Puritan  mind — If  they  should  retire — 
Probabilities — Factory  towns — Fields  for  labor — Eternally  wrong — 
For  any  measure  of  our  modern  charity — New  England  must  be  re- 
deemed— Duty,  not  success,  is  the  standard — If  it  should  sow  itself 
with  salt — Presbyterianism  must  show  "  a  more  excellent  way  " — 
Errorists  will  not  be  perpetual,  for  the  dominion  under  the  whole 
heaven  is  appropriated  to  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  and  they  shall 
obey  him — Reader,  farewell — We  must  stand  in  our  lots  in  the  end — 
Let' us  keep  the  faith. 

Such,  then,  is  our  "  History  of  Presbyterianism  in  New 
England."  "If  we  have  done  well  and  as  is  fitting  the 
story,  it  is  that  which  we  desired  :  if  slenderly  and  meanly, 
it  is  that  which  we  could  attain  unto.''  We  have  seen 
"semi-separatists"  from  the  Church  of  England  banish 
themselves  to  the  continent  of  Europe  for  "freedom  to 
worship  God,"  and  there,  after  several  years,  becoming 
deeply  indebted  to  the  "  Institutes  "  of  the  immortal  Cal- 
vin (and  very  extensively  adopting  his  "  sound  doctrine  ") 
for  their  order  of  religious  and  civil  liberty.  For  when  the 
"  agents  went  into  England  to  treat  with  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany and  with  several  great  persons  about  the  court,  unto 
them  they  made  evident  their  agreement  with  the  French 
Reformed  churches  (Presbyterian)  in  all  things  whatsoever, 
except  in  a  few  small  accidental  points."  (Mag.,  vol.  i., 
p.  48.) 

Imbued  with  these  teachings,  we  see  their  church  polity, 
before  they  cross  the  Atlantic  and  which  they  bring  with 
them,  m  all  but  "  a  few  small  accidental  points  "  purely 
Presbyterian.  Wliile  in  worship  they  had  substituted  for 
the  Episcopal  version  of  Stern  hold  and  Hopkins  that  of 
Ainsworth,  a  minister  of  their  own  persuasion,  which  they 
continued  to  use  for  sixty  years  in  the  wilderness,  and 
which  they  sang  by  note  without  reading  the  line.  In 
Europe  they  had  no  opportunity  of  setting  forth  their 
views  of  civil  government,  but  before  they  leave  the 
"  Mayflower  "  this  was  done,  and  of  their  action  we  have 
two  accounts. 

"November  11th,  1620,  Saturday,  being  thus  arrived, 
they  fall  on  their  knees  and  bless  the  God  of  heaven,  etc. 
Before  they  land,  they  this  day  combine  into  a  Body  Poll- 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  477 

tick  by  a  solemn  contract,  to  which  they  set  their  hands, 
as  the  basis  of  their  government  in  this  new  found  coun- 
try ;  chuse  Mr.  John  Carver,  their  governor  for  the  first 
'year."     {Pr.  N.  E.  Chron.,  p.  73.) 

"At  their  first  arrival,  November  11th,  1620,  they  did  as 
the  light  of  nature  itself  directed  them,  immediately  in  the 
harbor  sign  an  Instrument,  as  a  foundation  of  their  future 
and  needful  government;  wherein  declaring  themselves 
the  loyal  subjects  of  the  Crown  of  England,  they  did  com- 
bine into  a  body  politick  and  solemnly  engage  submission 
and  obedience  to  the  laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions  and 
officers,  that  from  time  to  time  should  be  thought  most 
convenient  for  the  general  good  of  the  colon3\  And  they 
chose  Mr.  John  Carver  their  governor."  {Mag.,  vol.  i., 
p.  52.) 

"  In  1621,  Mr.  William  Bradford  was  elected  governor, 
with  five  assistants,  which  office,  (with  the  exception  of 
three  years  by  Mr.  Winslow  and  two  by  Mr.  Prince  to  re- 
lieve him),  he  held  for  thirty-seven  years,  and  died  on 
Mav  9th,  1657,  in  the  sixty-ninth  year  of  his  age."  {Mag., 
vol.^i.,  pp.  113,  114.) 

"  March  23d,  1623,  was  a  yearly  court  day,  the  Governor 
communicates  his  intelligence  (in  modern  phraseology 
'  delivers  his  message ')  to  the  whole  company,  and  asks 
their  advice.  They  leave  it  to  him,  with  his  assistants 
and  the  captain  (of  their  militar}^  Miles  Standish),  to  do 
as  they  think  most  meet."  This  was  in  the  midst  of  a 
war  with  the  Indians.  Of  the  "  Contract,"  or  "  Instru- 
ment," and  of  the  yearly  transactions  of  his  government, 
he  kept  a  record,  which,  a  century  or  so  after  his  death, 
was  conveyed  to  Boston,  and  there  appropriately  de- 
posited in  the  French  Presb3^terian  meeting-house. 

This  fact  is  brought  to  notice  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

"  The  Chamberlain  of  the  city  of  London,  the  Hon.  Ben- 
jamin Scott,  writes  to  the  Times,  saying : 

" '  In  the  Bishop  of  London's  library  at  Fulham,  is  a 
manuscript  in  the  handwriting  of  Governor  Bradford, 
giving  a  diary  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Pilgrims,  contain- 
ing the  Compact  or  Constitution,  out  of  which  arose  the 
federation  now  termed  the  United  States.  It  was  captured 
as  booty  by  a  soldier  from  the  old  French,  (Scott  says 


478  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

German)  church  in  Boston,  and  forms  the  ''  Book  of  Gene- 
sis "  of  the  American  Nation.'  '  Mr.  Scott  suggests,  that 
in  the  midst  of  our  national  sorrow,  it  be  presented  in  thq^ 
name  of  the  Queen  to  the  United  States  at  the  Yorktown 
Centennial,  on  October  19th,  1881.'"  {Phila.  Led.,  Oct. 
6th,  1881.)* 

So  much  honor  is  due  to  those  old  psalm-singing  Pres- 
byterian Calvinists,  and  this  ''  solemn  Co7^^md,"  Governor 
Bradford  gives  us  in  the  following  words: 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  We,  whose  names  are 
underwritten,  the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign 
Lord  King  James,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain, 
France  and  Ireland,  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  etc.,  etc. 
Having  undertaken,  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  advance- 
ment of  the  Christian  faith,  and  honour  of  our  King  and 
country,  a  voyao^e  to  plant  the  first  colony  in  the  northern 
parts  of  Virginia;  do,  by  these  presents,  solemnly  and 
mutually,  in  the  presence  of  God,  and  of  one  another, 
covenant  and  combine  ourselves  together  unto  a  Civil 
Body  Politick,  for  our  ])etter  ordering  and  preservation, 
and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid;  and  by  virtue 
hereof  to  enact,  constitute  and  frame  such  just  and  equal 
laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions  and  offices  from  time 
to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient  for 
the  general  good  of  the  colony,  unto  which  we  promise  all 
due  submission  and  obedience. 

"  In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunder  subscribed  our 
names,  at  Cape  Cod,  the  11th  of  November,  in  the  year  of 
the  reign  of  our  Sovereign  Lord,  King  James,  of  England, 
France  and  Ireland,  the  eighteenth,  and  of  Scotland  the 
fifty-fourth.  Anno  Domini  1620.     (P.  Chron.,  pp.  84,  85.) 

"  Mr.  John  Carver,  Wm.  Bradford,  Mr.  Edward  ^^'ins- 
low,  Mr.  William  Brewster,  Mr.  Isaac  Allerton,  Captain 
Miles  Standish,  John  Alden.  Mr.  Samuel  Fuller,  Mr. 
Christopher  Martin,  Mr.  William  Mullins,  Mr.  William 
AVhite,  Mr.  Richard  Warren,  John  Rowland,  Mr.  Stephen 
Hopkins,  Edward  Tilly,  John  Tilly,  Francis  Cook,  Thomas 
Rogers,  Thomas  Tinker,  John  Ridgdale,  Edward  Fuller, 


*  Mr.  Scott's  suggestion  was  not  acceded  to,  and  in  lieu  of  this,  the 
Americans  burnt  gunpowder  in  saluting  the  British  flag  at  that  place 
on  that  day. 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  479 

John  Turner,  Francis  Eaton,  James  Chilton,  John  Cracks- 
ton,  John  Billington,  Moses  Fletcher,  John  Goodman, 
Degory  Priest,  Thomas  Williams,  Gilbert  Winslow,  Ed- 
mund Margeson,  Peter  Brown,  Richard  Britterige,  George 
8oule,  Richard  Clarke,  Richard  Gardiner,  John  Allerton, 
Thomas  English,  Edward  Dotey,  Edward  Leister."    41. 

"  One  hundred  and  one  left  England.  Of  these,  sixty 
■svere  women  and  children.  One  man  died  on  the  passage, 
and  Peregrine  White  was  born  in  Cape  Cod  harbor.  Ful- 
ler, Warren  and  Cook  left  their  wives  in  Holland  or  Eng- 
land, and  some  left  behind  them  some,  and  others  all  their 
children,  who  also  afterwards  came  over."     (P?-.,  p.  85.) 

Sucli  was  the  acorn  of  Calvinistic  Presbyterianism  from 
which  the  American  oak  grew.  These  men  did  not  under- 
take to  reform  the  Church  of  England,  as  the  two  pioneer 
chaplains  and  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  afterwards 
did,  neither  did  they  trifle  with  the  divinely  appointed 
ordinance  of  ecclesiastical  ordination  by  the  "laying  on 
of"  other  "hands,"  instead  of  those  of  a  lawfully  con- 
stituted "  Presbytery." 

Elder  William  Brewster,  a  chief  father  in  their  Israel 
for  nearly  forty  years,  while  he  "  labored  in  word  and  doc- 
trine," "  never  assumed  to  administer  the  sacraments." 
"  When  they  were  unsupplied  with  a  regular  ministry,  he 
preached  to  his  people  powerfully  and  profitably  twice 
every  Sabbath,  and  many  were  converted  to  God  by  his 
faithful  ministry."  While  he  was  an  ordained  ruling 
elder,  he  would  never  act  the  peculiar  part  of  an  ordained 
minister.  The  seals  of  the  covenant  of  grace  he  would  not 
dispense.  This  duty  he  left  to  be  performed  by  "  a  regu- 
larly ordained  ministry."  This  peo^^le,  coming  from  Ley- 
den  in  three  successive  emigrations,  protecting  their  homes 
from  savage  men,  as  tillers  of  the  soil,  and  occupiers  in  a 
limited  commerce  in  their  three  counties,  after  two  or 
three  generations  became  extensivel}^  assimilated  to  those 
who  followed  them  by  thousands  to  the  Bay,  for  religion 
and  commerce.     They  had  no  alternative. 

To  these  we  now  revert,  and  here  find  the  origin,  nature 
and  tendency  of  Congregationalism.  Born  at  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  on  August  6th,  1629,  bred  under  an  Athen- 
ian democracy  at  Boston.     Confederated  in  its  theocracy 


480  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANTSM 

with  "  the  King  of  Kings,"  intolerant  of  other  Christian 
persuasions,  while  it  had  or  has  its  own  civil  power  to 
control  their  church  property  or  persons,  and  now  leavening 
other  denominations  with  its  modern  New  England  theol- 
ogy, and  extensively  unsettling  the  foundations  of  fixed 
religious  truth,  not'^only  in  its  own  cradle,  under  its  own 
banner,  but  increasingly  under  both  Presbyterianism  and 
Prelacy. 

So  palpable  have  these  things  been,  that  a  President  of 
Amherst  College,  in  1850,  has  before  the  Legislature  on 
January  2d,  put  on  record  this  apology:  " Whatever  un- 
justifiable restraints  on  liberty  of  conscience  may  have 
been  imposed  by  our  zealous,  yet  erring  fathers,  it  is  the 
glory  of  our  Commonwealth,  that  no  such  impositions 
have  been,  for  a  long  time,  tolerated.  All  are  free  to  wor- 
ship God  as  they  choose,  provided,  they  demean  them- 
selves peaceably,  and  infringe  not  the  equal  rights  of 
others." 

The  reader  must  remember<to  say  nothing  of  anything 
else),  that  the  third  volume  of  "Gray's  Reports  "  Avas  not 
then  written.  The  first  decision  therein  recorded  is  no 
"  glory  "  to  the  "  Commonwealth."  Both  the  civil  and  re- 
ligious polity  of  this  people  we  have  sketched. 

"  Unjustifiable  restraints  "  were  from  the  first  imposed 
on  others  by  them.  This  was  the  belief  of  the  two  plan- 
ters, the  lawyer  and  merchant,  who  were  "  convented  be- 
fore and  re-shipped  to  England  by  the  Governor ;  "  this  was 
the  behef  of  Roger  Williams,  when  he  left  the  Episcopal 
church  in  England,  was  initiated  and  became  a  preacher 
of  the  new  order  of,  and  at,  Salem,  until  1636,  when,  being 
forced  out  of  the  colony,  he  went  to  Rhode  Island,  was 
converted  by  a  Mrs.  Scott,  a  sister  to  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
that  "she-wolf  of  antinomianism."  (Christian  Obser., 
March,  1849,  p.  140.)  "  Was  immersed  by  one  Holman  and 
forthwith  immersed  Holman  and  nine  others,  and  in 
about  three  months  renounced  this  baptism."  (lb.) 

"  Unjustifiable  restraints  on  the  liberty  of  conscience  " 
of  this  people,  who  difi'ered  from  themselves  only  on  the 
mode  and  one  half  of  the  subjects  of  baptism  were  re- 
moved by  the  Bay  Colony  Puritans  in  so  far  that  they 
were  allowed  to  form  a  Baptist  church  in  Boston  in  1664. 
At  the  expiration  of  the  charter,  in  1686,  the  Episcopa- 


IN    NEW  ENGLAND.  481 

lians  were  permitted  to  organize  a  church,  and  the  Friends 
to  hold  their  "meetings"  in  1710. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  centur}^  Prelacy  ob- 
tained a  further  foothold  in  Boston.  The  Roman  Catho- 
lics opened  their  first  place  of  worship  in  1789.  The 
Episcopal  Methodists  began  in  1795. 

Up  till  1786  the  theocrac}^  of  the  Bay  State  deemed  it 
blasphemy  to  deny  the  Trinity.  At  this  date  the  spirit 
of  change  became  an  element  of  their  Athenian  democracy, 
and  a  society,  controlling  King's  Episcopal  chapel,  by 
schism  voted  it,  in  1785,  into  line  with  the  Colonial  church 
polity,  and  then  voted  the  Trinity  out  of  it.  Henceforth, 
as  the  spirit  of  the  land,  this  polity  became  less  aggres- 
sive, and  "unjustifiable  restraints "  less  numerous,  as  this 
article  of  their  theocratic  faith,  ceased  to  be  believed,  as 
the  Hol}^  Scriptures  came  to  be  viewed  as  only  of  adequate 
and  not  of  plenary  inspiration.  The  faith  of  the  godly 
had  now  to  contend  with  the  "advanced  thought"  of  the 
Athenians.  As  the  Ba}^  colony  and  their  pioneer  chap- 
lains aimed  at  reforming  their  mother  church,  they  and 
their  successors  have  succeeded  in  controlling  the  pew 
patronage  of  the  parish,  in  making  some  parts  of  the  "ser- 
vice" less  conformable  to  her  canon  law,  while  her  "Broad 
church"  designates  that  portion  of  Protestant  Prelacy, 
which,  while  assailed  and  cherished  by  German  doubts 
and  negations,  slakes  her  thirst  for  the  forbidden  in  tlie 
overflowing  New  England  fountain  of  adequate  inspira- 
tion. 

The  record  of  the  "  unjustifiable  restraints  "  placed  on 
Presbyterianism,  not  only  by  the  "zealous,  yet  erring 
fathers  "  among  the  Puritans,  but  also  by  their  ecclesias- 
tical successors,  form  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  history 
both  of  the  colony  and  of  the  State. 

Of  these,  from  the  necessity  and  demand  of  truth,  we 
have  recorded  not  a  few  of  the  more  prominent  in  refer- 
ence to  the  liberty  of  their  persons,  the  freedom  of  their 
consciences,  the  sacredness  of  their  churches,  and  the 
gravestone  of  their  dead. 

To  trace  and  understand  the  genius  of  the  New  England 
system,  we  must  remember  that  it  is  the  creature  of  cir- 
cumstances. It  does  not,  as  we  have  shewn  that  the 
Presbyterian  polity  does,  begin  at  Jerusalem,  and  declare 
31 


482  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

"  Nobody  has  yet  appeared  who  could  prove  that  we  have 
altered  any  one  thing  which  God  has  commanded,  or  that 
we  have  appointed  any  new  thing  contrary  to  his  word,  or 
that  we  have  turned  aside  from  the  truth  to  follow  any 
evil  opinion "  (Calvin),  but  it  builds  its  usages  on  cir- 
cumstances. 

Hence  says  the  Boston  Christian  Observatory  (No.  8,  vol. 
1,  August,  1847),  "That  the  germ  of  Congregationalism  is 
found  in  the  New  Testament  can  be  believed,  without 
supposing  that  this  particular  system  of  church  polity,  or 
any  other,  was  fully  developed  in  all  its  parts  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  apostles,  without  even  supposing  that  this, 
or  any  other,  was  intended  to  be  a  distinct  subject  of  di- 
vine legislation.  It  should  be  sufficient  authority  for  any 
ecclesiastical  usage,  if  the  principles  of  the  gospel  carried 
into  consistent  practice  amid  all  the  circumstances 
which  Providence  has  arranged  shall  naturally  and  ne- 
cessarily bring  in  tliat  usage.  Hence  the  manner  in 
which  Congregationalism  took  its  rise  in  New  England 
renders  it  sufficiently  divine." 

Consequently  vitalized,  nurtured  and  defended  by  "cir- 
cumstances," its  early  intolerance  under  its  theocracy  be- 
comes under  its  ever-abiding  Athenian  democracy  diffu- 
sive, productive,  prolific  and  permeating,  when  the  sword 
of  Gideon  is  not  fully  sustained  by  the  sword  of  the  Lord. 
It  makes  attractive  such  forms  of  religion  as  will  gratify 
the  "  tastes  "  of  men. 

Hence  in  accounting  in  the  pan-Methodist  conference  in 
London,  in  1881,  for  their  unsurpassed  denominational 
growth,  a  speaker  declared  "  the  secret  is  that  our  system 
and  usages  are  such  as  suit  more  extensively  than  any 
others  the  '  tastes '  of  the  American  people."  Hence 
the  Philadelphia  Methodist  Episcopal  Conference  at  Potts- 
ville,  Pa.,  on  March  19th,  1881,  adopted,  as  a  matter  of 
taste,  the  reading  of  their  sermons,  a  custom  abominated 
by  the  denomination  for  above  a  century,  and  their  Dr. 
Taylor,  of  Chicago,  has  so  fully  conformed  to  the  New 
England  orthodox  "  tastes  "  in  his  doctrines,  that  they  have 
justly  cast  him  out  of  their  fellowship. 

This  eclectic  operation  of  substituting  a  supposed 
*'  New  Testament  germ,"  generated  in  the  minds  of  theorists 
from  time  to  time  as  sufficient  authority  in  the  room  of 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  483 

"  the  oracles  of  God,"  has  made  modern  Congregationalism 
extensively  the  delight  of  those  who  are  "ever  learning, 
and  never  able  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth." 

Nay,  in  its  legitimate  deductions  it  makes  the  existence 
of  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  "  sometimes  at  least  "an  un- 
known quantity  "  in  promoting  the  glory  of  God,  and  in 
making  the  calling  and  election  of  the  soul  of  any  man 
sure.  By  this  it  is  not  to  be  understood  that  all  who  sus- 
tain and  propagate  this  polity  are  the  children  "  of  the 
night  or  of  darkness."  Many  of  them,  despite  their 
only  partially  scriptural  system,  are  among  "  the  elect  of 
God,"  spending  and  being  spent  for  his  glory,  and  "bear- 
ing the  image  of  the  heavenly."  Let  it  be  remembered 
that  "the  question  is  always,  not  whether  accomplish- 
ments and  virtues  and  piet}^  exist  within  this  or  that  S3^s- 
tem,  but  simply  whether  the  system  itself  be  good  or 
evil." 

These  attainments  in  the  divine  life,  however,  are  not 
the  exclusive  productions  of  modern  New  England  the- 
ology. They  are  extensively  transmitted  from  those 
minds  which  for  above  a  century  believed,  lived  under 
and  taught  for  doctrine  the  form  of  sound  words  contained 
in  the  "Confession  of  Faith,  owned  and  consented  to  at 
Boston  on  May  12th,  1680." 

Our  modern  Congregationalism  has  so  far  swept  around 
the  circle  from  the  doctrines  and  morality  of  the  Puritans, 
that  the  very  foundation  of  domestic  life,  the  marriage  re- 
lation, is  assailed  by  the  ease  with  which  a  divorce  can  be 
obtained,  and  by  which  the  supply  stimulates  the  de- 
mand. 

That  which  was  once  in  "  the  land  of  steady  habits  "  of 
rare  occurrence,  and  mentioned  only  with  shame,  has  be- 
come fearfully  common,  about  every  twelfth  marriage  pro- 
ducing a  divorce.  Hence  also  says  the  Boston  Daily 
Globe  of  May,  1879 :  "  In  1865  Governor  Andrew  and  the 
Rev.  Charles  Beecher  extensively  broke  down  the  Massa- 
chusetts law  of  divorce.  Now  lawyers  have  a  large  prac- 
tice in  divorcing."  Consequently  for  years  the  New  Eng- 
land bureau  of  divorce  has  been  so  plied  by  those  whose 
heart's  desire  is  to  return  to  "  single  blessedness,"  that  at 
times  for  months  they  have  to  "  wait  their  turn."^ 

Beyond  this,  the  structure  of  domestic  life  which  under 


,484  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM 

"  the  social  compact "  in  New  England  has  sprung  up,  at 
times  presents  rare  productions. 

The  United  States,  so  far  as  modesty  and  a  sense  of 
shame  remain,  are  humbled  by  the  presence  and  growth 
of  one  of  the  most  loathsome,  leprous  sights  on  earth, 
when,  under  pretense  of  obeying  the  will  of  that  holy 
God  who  made  man  in  his  own  likeness,  male  and  female, 
*'  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort "  have  successfully  set  up 
polygamy  as  the  essence  of  holiness.  Not  only  is  the  fear 
of  God  proportionably  gone,  but  national  patriotism  is 
assailed,  as  in  fifty  years  they  have  three  territories  exten- 
sively under  their  control. 

These  self-styled  "  latter  day  saints  "  are  most  success- 
fully compassing  "  sea  and  land  "  to  make  proselytes.  -On 
the  "  centennial "  day  of  the  battle  of  Yorktown,  twenty- 
four  of  their  teachers  sailed  for  p]urope,  and  the  disgrace  is 
deepened  by  the  consideration  that  these  were  led  by  a 
Scotchman,  and  five  days  afterward  four  hundred  of  their 
latter  day  saints  landed  in  New  York. 

By  gathering,  as  they  do,  the  deluded  and  the  vile  from 
the  remote  parts  of  the  earth,  they  can  more  hopefully, 
when  backed  by  multitudes,  present  resistance  to  our  civil 
government. 

They  plead  for  freedom  of  conscience  in  what  they  call 
religious  worship,  under  the  pretense  that  their  "  Book  of 
Mormon  "  is  by  them  j^laced  on  a  level  with  the  Bible  as 
a  supplementary  book.  While  their  prophet  and  member 
in  Congress  are  both  Englishmen,  the  abomination  sprang 
from  New  England  mind  directed  by  a  new  inspiration  to 
them  *'  sufficiently  divine." 

"  The  Mormon  church  commenced  April  6th,  A.  D.  1830, 
at  Fayette,  Seneca  county.  New  York.  It  was  organized 
by  three  Smiths,  two  Whitmers  and  one  Coudrey,  six  in 
all,  actuated  by  him  who  "  is  transformed  as  an  angel  of 
light."  Of  the  two  Whitmers  one  was  called  David.  He 
was  the  friend  and  confidant  of  Joseph  Smith,  and  prom- 
inently identified  with  the  Mormon  movement  until 
polygamy  and  other  questionable  practices  were  intro- 
duced as  a  part  of  the  saint's  faith.  He  then  settled  in 
Richmond,  Ray  county,  Mo.  He  lived  in  New  York 
State  when  the  golden  tablets  of  "  the  book  of  Mormon  " 
were  founds  and  has  the  only  manuscript  copy  made  of 


IN   NEW   ENCxLAND.  485 

the  inscriptions  upon  them  in  existence,  and  is  the  only 
living  witness  of  the  authenticity  of  their  book. 

He  and  his  son  David  (who  communicates  these  state- 
ments) "regard  the  book  as  one  of  the  supplementary 
books,"  as  much  entitled  to  be  revered  with  the  Bible  as 
any  book  of  the  Bible  itself,  and  that,  wdiile  they  acknowl- 
edge that  polygamy  and  kindred  abuses  which  have 
crept  into  the  Mormon  religion  are  the  abhorrence  of  all 
intelligent  citizens. 

Joseph  Smith  and  the  late  Hon.  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
(it  is  said)  hailed  from  the  same  town  in  Vermont.  In 
the  varied  parts  of  our  union  "  the  spirit  of  the  age  "  is 
manifested  by  increasing  insubordination,and  nothing  but  a 
proper  knowledge  of  "  the  higher  law  "  and  obedience  to  it 
will  teach  men  to^'  render  to  all  their  dues." 

Modern  Congregationalism,  as  a  religious  system,  having 
its  foundation  on  the  circumstances  and  place  of  its  birth", 
extensively  imbues  Presbyterianism.  Look  into  any  di- 
vision of  it,  and,  with  few  exceptions,  you  find  it  so, 
causing  its  youth  to  fret  at  its  own  scriptural  authority, 
controverting  its  own  former  sound  doctrine,  and  re- 
ducing its  own  originall}'  "  pure  offering  "  of  i^ raise  in  mat- 
ter and  in  manner  down  (in  too  many  cases  at  least)  to 
an  artificial  and  ephemeral  entertainment.  By  intro- 
ducing and  adopting  these  New^  England  innovations,  our 
escutcheon  is  blurred,  our  original  identity  is  lost,  and 
where  to  a  surrounding  world  we  should  arise  and  shine, 
for  there  remains  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed, 
"  Ephraim  envies  Judah  and  Judah  vexes  Ephraim." 

Numerically,  we  are  not  multiplying  the  saints  as 
Presbyterians  in  former  days  have  done,  and  relatively  our 
polity  is  retiring  to  the  rear.  "  These  things  ought  not  so  to 
be."  In  the  meantime  our  church  property,  is  occasionally 
absorbed  by  this  neighbor. 

Not  only  in  scores  of  places  in  New^  England  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  pew-owners  has  it  done  this,  but  in  New 
York  its  spoliation  is  provided  for  by  civil  law,  so  that  "  any 
church  or  religious  society,  it  is  said,  may  safely  become 
Congregational  by  observing  cautions  "  recorded  on  pages 
128,  129,  in  Burkes  Massachusetts  Ecclesiastical  Law.  In 
conclusion,  separating  ourselves  from  Prclac}^  in  all  its 
forms,   and   Congregationalism  in  its    ramifications,    we 


486  HISTORY  OF  PRESBYTERIANISM 

should  all,  under  our  general  name  Presbyterian,  remem- 
ber the  divine  origin  of  our  polity,  the  costly  transmission 
of  it  to  us,  our  own  usefulness  in  our  generation,  the  best 
interests  of  our  children,  the  peace  of  our  land,  the  salva- 
tion of  the  lost,  the  honor  of  Christ  and  the  glory  of  God. 
This  is  our  duty.  "  Let  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the 
future  (in  all  her  divisions)  be  marked  above  all  by  this, 
that  her  ministers  are  teachers  of  the  Word  in  the  pulpit, 
in  Bible  classes,  in  the  Sabbath  school,  '  and  from  house 
to  house ; '  let  her  people  be  thorough  in  their  knowledge 
of  the  Scriptures — let  her  prayers,  her  sermons,  her  litera- 
ture be  rich  in  Scripture  truth,  and  her  energies  will  be 
little  wasted,  and  her  time  little  consumed  in  those  '  de- 
bates '  which  '  do  gender  strifes.' 

"  We  make  no  apology  for  adverting  at  this  point  to  the 
imperative  necessity  that  exists  for  securing  for  our  chil- 
dren thorough  scriptural  instruction  in  the  Sabbath  school. 
Thousands  have  passed  through  it  with  no  more  knowl- 
edge of  the  Word  than  suffices  for  a  flippant  allusion  or  a 
profane  reference.  The  church  must  see  to  it  that  the 
w^ord  of  her  God  be  taught  her  young  members,  or  they 
will  be  practically  ignorant  of  it." 

"  Nor  is  it  at  all  certain  that  their  attendance  on  the 
Sabbath  school  is  an  adequate  remedy.  Many  teachers 
are  incompetent  as  teachers;  and  much  of  the  Sabbath 
school  literature  which  is  superseding  the  reading  (and 
committing)  of  the  Bible  (to  memory)  is  worse  than  use- 
less. It  is  mischievous.  What  can  be  the  effect  of  giving 
children  mere  stories,  wdth  just  enough  of  the  spice  of  re- 
ligion to  make  them  '  Sunday  books,'  but  to  drive  them  to 
novels?  For  novelettes  many  of  these  volumes  are,  and 
often  poor  as  such.  There  is  little  reading,  and  no  study 
of  the  Scripture  on  week  days ;  and  on  Sabbath  it  is  sup- 
posed to  be  as  it  should  if  the  children  are  engaged  with 
their  library  books  and  papers,  and  so  they  grow  to  matu- 
rity with  only  the  most  superficial  ideas  of  the  holy  ora- 
cles. 

"And  at  this  point  let  us  not  suppress  the  hope  that  the 
Catechism  of  the  church  will  receive  increased  attention  in 
the  training  of  the  young,  especially  in  the  family.  If  the 
parental  vow  to  God  mean  anything,  the  parents  bind 
themselves  to  teach  their  offspring  the  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  religion." 


IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  487 

In  this  personal  teaching  they  themselves  are  learners, 
for  they  cannot  teach  what  they  do  not  know.  When 
they  act  b}^  pi'oxy,  they  remain  ignorant  themselves. 
Hence  (in  our  age  of  improvement),  were  we  to  ask 
thousands  of  professing  Presbyterian  Christians,  "  What 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion  have  you  taught  your 
children? ''  we  should  get  no  satisfactory  answer.  A  com- 
mon subterfuge  is,  "  The  Catechism  is  hard."  So  is  the 
mviltiplicatioQ  table,  and  by  a  beginner  just  as  little  under- 
stood; he  learns  both  only  as  a  mere  .exercise  of  memory. 
"  It  is  so  with  much  of  the  education  of  every  one  of  us. 
Common  sense,  observation  and  fidelity  to  our  vows 
all  combine  to  urge  upon  Presbyterian  parents  the  right 
and  conscientious  use  of  a  help  so  valuable  in  giving  to 
the  young  members  of  our  churches  a  competent  knowledge 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion."  If  our  divisions 
are  ever  to  be  healed,  a  leading  unitary  influence  will  be, 
"coming  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,"  the  "one  faith  " 
through  our  "  form  of  sound  words,"  and  one  s,ystem 
of  logic,  by  "  saying  the  Catechism."  To  the  above  cogent 
statements,  taken  from  "  The  Presbyterian  Church  Through- 
out the  World,  1874,"  I  further  add : 

"  In  order  to  realize  this  high  object,  and  become  a  yet 
greater  powder  for  good  in  the  country,  we  doubt  not  the 
church  of  the  future  will  seek  in  a  higher  degree  to  popu- 
larize her  services.  And  this,  we  aj^prehend,  will  be  done, 
not  so  much  by  the  adoption  of  new,  as  by  the  resumption 
of  former  methods. 

"  Take,  for  example,  the  subject  of  singing  in  divine  ser- 
vice. In  man}^  churches  this  noble  function  of  the  church 
lias  been  relegated  to  a  few  persons,  and  the  appearance  a 
congregation  presents  to  an  observant  heathen  would  be 
that  of  a  body  of  people  in  a  large  building,  at  one  end  of 
which,  on  an  eminence  above  the  people,  a  man  does  all 
the  praying  and  talking,  and  at  the  other  end  of  which 
three  or  four  others,  at  a  greater  elevation,  do  all  the  prais- 
ing. Musical  faculty  and  moral  worth  do  not,  unhappily, 
always  go  together;  and  where  the  '  voices '  in  the  sing- 
ers' gallery  disport  themselves  in  the  intervals  of  their  per- 
formance in  a  way  more  like  their  week-day  than  their 
Sabbath  spheres,  the  farce  is  turned  into  an  abomination. 

"  We  shall  live,  let  us  hope,  to  see  this  thing  banished 


488  HISTORY   OF   ^^J•:SBYTERIA^'ISM 

from  evangelical  churches.  All  the  history  of  Protestant- 
ism (and  especially  of  unmixed  Presb3'terianism)  is 
against  it.  To  say  nothing  farther  of  the  Huguenots  and 
the  Pilgrims,  '  Knox  had  the  Scottish  people  taugl^t  to 
praise  God  so  thoroughly,  that  a  mass  meeting  could  sing 
a  psalm  through  without  books,  and  in  the  "  parts  "  of  the 
melody.' 

''Application,  under  the  Divine  blessing,  will  do  this  any- 
where among  our  apostate  race.  '  The  spectacle  of  a 
church  claiming  to  win  the  masses,  and  taking  from  them 
the  only  portion  of  public  worship  in  which  they  can  all 
unite,  would  be,  if  not  so  saddening,  supremely  ridiculous.' 

"  It  is  idle  to  say  that  certain  people  get  music  of  the 
highest  order  elsewhere,  and  if  they  cannot  liave  it  in  the 
church  they  will  not  come.  The  patrons  of  the  opera  and 
theatre  have  never  been  of  so  much  real  value  in  the 
church  as  to  be  worth  consulting,  and  least  of  all  should 
devout  and  serious  worshippers  be  wronged  and  driven 
away  for  the  aesthetic  satisfaction  of  casual  and  patronizing 
visitors  to  the  services.  Let  Israel  worship  God  as  he  has 
appointed,  and  let  the  '  mixed  multitude '  follow  or  keep 
away. 

"  The  army  of  the  Lord  is  not  to  change  its  plans  for  the 
idle  pleasure  of  the  camp  followers.  And  it  is  in  vain  to 
think  of  winning  the  world  by  mere  music.  What  is  the 
value  to  any  church  of  such  acquisitions?  The  week-day 
entertainments  supply  the  genuine  article,  and  w^ithout 
making  the  church  an  actual  theatre,  you  cannot  compete 
with  them." 

With  these  considerations  we  close  our  history.  The 
scene  is  not  joyous,  and  did  we  see  the  native  religion 
maintain  its  pristine  purity  in  doctrine  and  w^orship,  we 
might  "  thank  God  and  take  courage."  But  when  we  now 
find  that  after  an  experiment  of  above  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  this  polity  not  only  produces  "divers  and 
strange  doctrines,"  but  impairs  the  force  of  truth  among 
other  sects  as  they  borrow  from  it,  and  is  waxing  feeble  for 
self-protection  and  perpetuity  on  its  own  soil,  it  is  other- 
wise. Among  above  four  millions  one  hundred  thousand 
people  in  New  England,  we  have  after  one  hundred  and 
ninety  years  only  of  the  badgered  Presbyterians  about 
thirty-three  congregations,  nearly  all  feeble,  yet  we  find 


IN    NEW   ENGLAND.  489 

those  who  on  the  same  soil  placed  them  under  "  unjustifia- 
ble restraints,"  in  a  condition  proportionably  spiritually 
unhealthy. 

They  report  a  membership  of  213,978  (of  whom  33,253 
are  absent),  or  about  one-nineteenth  of  the  population, 
with  a  loss  of  eight  hundred  and  forty-six  members  in 
Kew  England  in  a.  d.  1880.  They  are  thus,  on  their  native 
soil,  in  the  descending  node,  and  proportionally,  as  Pres- 
byterians are  found  throughout  the  land,  assimilated  to 
them  in  doctrine  and  in  worshi^^,  using  their  logic,  em- 
yjloying  their  vocabulary,  imitating  their  customs  and  ob- 
serving their  usages,  they  are  gravitating  with  about  equal 
velocity. 

It  has  been  said  philosophically  that  where  "  the  people 
of  a  locality  look  around,  see  how  well  a  system  works 
elsewhere  and  set  it  up,  it  will  grow,"  that  consequently 
until  the  New  Englanders  do  this,  Presbyterians  should 
not  intrude. 

But  the  command  is,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature."  Judging  from  what 
is  desired  and  prospers  in  New  England,  Presbyterians 
should  retire,  for  among  Congregational  forms  of  thought 
they  can  have  but  little  hope,  especially  as  the  Bible  has 
not  the  hold  on  the  modern,  which  it  had  on  the  Puritan 
mind. 

Still,  what  then  if  they  should  retire?  Presbyterians 
wisely  or  unwisely  domicile  in  the  region,  and  if  not  cared 
for,  they  will  likely  become  "  an  increase  of  sinful  men." 

The  factory  towns  here  afford  fields  for  faithful  gospel 
labor,  not  much,  if  any,  inferior  to  other  regions,  and  it 
will  be  eternally  wrong  to  allow  Popery  and  infidelity  to 
carry  back  and  obliterate  the  Christian  civilization  of  "  the 
New  England  Primer  "  for  any  measure  of  our  modern 
Joab  and  Amasa  charity.  New  England  must  yet  be 
redeemed  by  coming  to  "the  knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it 
is  in  Jesus,"  and  Presbyterians  must  make  the  experiment 
of  assisting  in  the  work,  whether  thej^  succeed  or  fail. 

Duty,  not  success,  is  the  standard  of  our  encouragement 
and  accountability. 

Even  if  this  highly  favored  region  should  sow  itself  with 
salt  (Judges  ix.  45),  under  attachment  to  what  is  to  it 
"sufficiently  divine,"  Presbyterians   must  shew  to   New 


490  HISTORY   OF   PRESBYTERIANISM. 

England  "  a  more  excellent  way."  Generations  of  error- 
ists  may  flourish  on  that  soil,  but  "the  kingdom  and  do- 
minion, and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  under  the  whole 
heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the 
Most  High,  and  all  shall  serve  and  obey  him." 

Reader,  farewell.     We  must  meet  and  stand  each  in  his 
"  lot  in  the  end  of  the  days."    Let  us  keep  "  the  faith." 


APPENDICES. 


.Au,— Page  16. 


Before  shewing  how  "Congregationalism,  by  taking  its  rise 
in  New  England,"  is  always  "  sufficiently  divine,"  it  may  be 
well  to  see  how  Presbyterianism  and  Prelacy,  the  only  other 
church  polities,  originated.  As  there  is  but  "  one  God,  so  there 
is  one  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus." 
To  this  office  the  Father  ordained  him,  to  administer  all  tlie 
affairs  in  the  universe,  to  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  to 
be  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead.  When  manifested  in  tlie  flesh, 
he  ordained  twelve,  and  gave  them  power  that  he  might  send 
them  forth  to  preach.  When  made  "  perfect  througii  suffer- 
ings," before  ascending  to  glory,  the  risen  Saviour  was  seen 
alive  after  his  passion  by  his  apostles  forty  days,  speaking  to 
them  of  the  things  pertaining  to  the  Kingdom  of  God,  its  pro- 
phet and  his  doctrine,  its  priest,  his  altar,  sacrifice,  and  inter- 
cession, its  king,  his  laws  and  subjects.  He  then  commanded 
these  apostles,  "whom  he  had  chosen  and  ordained,  to  make 
Christians  of  all  nations,  teaching  those  whom  they  admitted 
into  fellowship  by  baptism,  "to  observe  all  things  whatsoever 
I  have  commanded  you,"  and  as  ye  do  so,  "I  am  with  you 
alway  "  by  ''andther  Comforter,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  who  will 
abide  with  you  forever." 

If  we  believe  the  apostles  to  have  been  honest  and  faithful 
men,  we  can  learn  what  Christ  tlie  King  of  his  church  then 
"  conmianded,"  by  ascertaining,  wliat  they  taught  all  Christians 
"to  observe." 

AVe  will  then,  in  "the  mind  of  the  Spirit,"  "  have  the  mind 
of  Christ." 

We  have  by  them,  first,  preaching,  then  conversions,  then 
Christian  baptism  on  and  after,  but  not  before,  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost. The  disciples  were  also  taught  that  "  the  law  of  the 
house,"  of  "  the  church  of  the  living  God,"  required  "  all  things 
to  be  done  decently  and  in  order." 

To  execute  his  laws,  the  apostles  were  "  endued  with  power 
from  on  high,"  not  from  the  one  hundred  and  twenty,  much 
less  from  the  people  or  the  members,  even  when  multitudes 
were  "added  to  the  church." 

(491) 


492  APPENDICES. 

As,  under  the  influences  of  unsanctified  human  nature,  na- 
tional prejudices  becfjin  to  mar  lier  peace,  by  supposed  partiality 
in  the  daily  distribution  to  the  poor;  deaccms  were  by  tiie  apos- 
tles put  in  trust  with  ''  tlie  outward  business  "  of  tlie  church. 

Wlien,  hy  the  direction  of  the  twelve,  who  described  their 
necessary  (lualiticatious  and  told  their  numbers,  the  nuiltitude 
of  tlie  disciples  elected  the  men  to  become  deacons,  this,  as  they 
were  not  '' endued  with  power  from  on  hi^li,"'  was  all  that  they 
could  do.  As  those  who  came  to  the  grave  of  J.azarus  could 
''take  away  the  stone,"  but  could  not  make  the  ''dead  come 
forth,"  so  this  was  all  that  the  "holy  biethren,"  ])artakers  of 
the  heavenly  calling,  members  of  the  church,  could  or  can  do; 
they  can  communicate  none  of  the  "  power  "  of  Jesus,  no,  not 
even,  as  a  rule,  to  serve  the  tables  of  the  poor  in  the  house  of 
God. 

By  the  twelve,  acting  under  their  Master's  authority,  those 
chosen  to  be  deacons,  were  examined,  ordained,  appointed  and 
directed  by  the  elders  how  to  distribute  "  relief  "  to  the  poor. 

This  was  not  done,  by  any  majority,  or  unanimous,  or  popular 
vote  of  the  disciples,  who,  though  then  a  multitude,  had  not 
J' one  jot  or  tittle"  of  "the  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ" 
in  any  way,  in  ruling,  feeding,  or  ta'king  care  of  his  church. 
They  were  the  ruled,  not  rulers.  It  was  their  i)rivilege,  when 
directed  by  their  official  spiritual  su])eriors,  to  "look  out  from 
among  "  themselves,  and  it  belonged  to  "  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try," to  "the  elders  who  ruled  well,"  especially  to  those  who 
labored  in  the  word  and  doctrine  (as  the  twelve  then  did),  1 
Pet.  V.  1  ;  3  John  i.,  to  lay  their  "  hands  on  them,"  and  to  "ap- 
point "  them  over  this,  or  any  other  "  business"  of  a  spiritual 
character.     (Acts  xi.  30.) 

In  shewing  to  us  "the  mind  of  Christ,"  in  the  "all  things, 
which  he  commanded  "  them,  the  apostles,  in  associating  his 
followers,  organized  them  into  local  congregations,  or  assem- 
blies (Jas.  ii.  2),  by  "ordaining"  for  them  "elders  in  every 
church,"  and  as  of  God,  there  is  but  "one  Lord,  one  faith  and 
one  baptism,"  so,  all  the  local  churches  wearing  the  Christian 
name,  where  they  do  not  deny  "  the  faith,"  were  (and  ought 
ever  to  be)  one.  Thus,  the  thousands  of  Christian  assemblies 
throughout  Judaea,  Galilee  and  Samaria  were  "•  the  church  " 
(Acts  ix.  31),  the  whole  denomination  formed  but  one  church, 
and  in  all  cities,  where  the  true  followers  of  Christ  were  found, 
there  was  something  "  wanting  "  there,  until,  by  "  the  work  of 
the  ministry,"  elders  were  elected,  ordained  and  ap])ointed. 
Those,  to  whom  "the  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  was  to 
be  committed  by  "  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presby- 
tery," must  be  "  faithful  "men,"  "  not  novices,"  and  be  found, 
on  examination,  or  proof,  able  to  teach  others  also.  In  each 
local  church,  these  were  to  "  rule  with  diligence,"  not  "lording 
it  over  God's  heritage,  but  being  ensamples  to  the  flock,"  while 
the  command  is  ever  on  record  (Heb.  xiii.  17),  "Obey  them 
that  have  the  rule  over  you,"  etc. 


APPENDICES.  493 

Before  ^oin^,  as  the  "  ambassadors  of  Christ,"  "into  all  the 
world,  beo-imiing  at  Jerusalem,  to  i^reach  tlie  gospel  to  e very- 
creature,"  they  received  their  authority  from  tlie  Holy  Ghost 
(Acts  xiii.  2,  3,  4),  by  an  appointed  formal  acknowledginent  of 
liis  ''  power  "  and  presence.  ''  Proved  "  by  his  minister.-,  called 
by  his  grace  and  in  his  i)rovidence,  they  are  ever  to  be  ''sepa- 
rated unto  the  work  whereunto  he  has  called  tlnnn,"  and  this  by 
l)ropJiets  and  teachers  in  his  church,  who,  with  fasting  and 
prayer,  fullil  his  will,  while  the  ordainers ''send  them  away," 
and  they  are  ''sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 

"The  church,"  when  "in  the  wilderness,"  and  evr  since, 
lias  had  elders,  men  of  experience,  wisdom  and  gravity,  whose 
faces  for  their  office,  so  long  as  they  used  it  well,  were  and  are 
ever  to  be  honored.  With  the  apostles,  elders  and  bishops  were 
officially  the  same,  and  by  them  they  were  instruct((l  how  to 
perpetuate  the  office.  Not  only  so  ;  when  "divers  and  stiange 
doctrines"  endanger  the  souls  of  God's  people,  the  matter  was 
and  is  to  be  considered  by  the  elders  as  "the  ai)ostles  of  the 
churches  and  the  glory  of  Christ." 

Their  "  decrees,"  where  they  "judge  righteous  judgment," in- 
crease the  number  of  the  churches  and  establish  them  in  the 
faith  and  joy  of  the  gospel. 

Again,  elders  must  ever  remember,  tliat  their  s]>iritual  au- 
thority extends  oidy  to  the  membership  of  the  churcli  and  to 
none  else.  "  Do  not  ye  judge  them  that  are  within  ?  But  them 
that  are  v/ithout  God  judgeth."  Pi-esbyterians,  with  this 
authority  and  these  instructions  (among  the  other,  "all 
things  which  I  have  commanded  you  "),  "  turned  the  inhabited 
eartii  up-side  down."  But  when  Christ  was  bronglit  into  con- 
nection with  (or  under  the  patronage)  of  Ciiesar,  and  his  church 
was  ostensibly  aided  by  civil  government,  her  "gold  became 
dim." 

Then,  in  due  time,  moderators  of  church  courts,  and  pastors 
in  cities  began  to  "  lord  it  over  God's  heritage,"  instead  of  being 
*' feeders  "  of,  and  "ensamples  to  the  flock." 

Hence  (says  Vicar  Stackhouse)  "  But  though  the  bishops  of  the 
primitive  church  were  all  invested  witjj  the  same  oUice  and  au- 
thority, yet,  in  process  of  time  and  as  Christianity  increased,  it 
was  found  necessary  to  enlarge  the  Episcopal  ])ow*er,  and,  there- 
fore, as  before,  there  w^as  a  bishop  in  every  great  city,  so  now, 
an  archbisho])  was  placed  in  every  metropolis.  AVhen  Chris- 
tianity overspread  tlie  Roman  empire,  there  sprang  up  another 
superior  branch  of  the  Episcopal  office,  primates  and  patriarchs, 
who  had  jurisdiction  over  several  provinces. 

"To  understand  this,  it  is  requisite  to  know,  that  wdien  the 
Christian  faitli  was  fully  settled  in  the  world,  it  was  determined 
to  model  the  external  government  of  the  church,  as  near  as  might 
be,  to  the  civil  government  .of  tlie  emi)ire,  which  was  divided 
into  tliirteen  dioceses,  and  these  containing  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  provinces,  and  every  province  several  cities,  as  in 
every  city  there  was  a  magistrate,  so  was  there  also  a  bishop, 


494  APPENDICES. 

whose  jurisdiction  was  of  like  extent."  (Body  of  Divinitv,  P. 
746;Ecl.  J.oiKlon,  1729.) 

AVe  have  here,  then,  the  full  development  of  prelaev,  from  its 
unity  in  the  Vatican  (from  tiie  thnteen  diocesesi  down  to  tlie 
sinjj^le  parish,  all  in  coml)ination  ;  and  as  the  system  is  not  ob- 
tained from  (nor  in  liainiony  vvitii)  '*  the  oracles  ot  God,"  but 
drawn  from  the  structure  and  extent  of  the  IJoman  Euii)ire  ;  so, 
not  only  the  s(^pai-atists  and  "semi-separatists."  but  the  non- 
confoimists  withdrew  from  full  fellowship  with  the  Church  of 
Eui^dand,  its  Protestant  representation. 

And  we  come  now  to  the  '' rist  of  Congregationalism  in  New 
Eno-land." 

''  For  one  hundred  and  ten  years  after  the  discovery  of  Amer- 
ica, no  Euioi)eans  but  Spaniards  had  made  any  settlements  on 
its  soil.  To  the  crown  of  their  country  (in  1493)  the  Pope  was 
pleased  to  give  the  sole  title  to  all  lands  lying  above  one  hundred 
leagues  west  of  the  Azores,  and  such  was  the  ignoj-ance  in  Eu- 
rope that  the  multitude  thought  he  had  a  right  to  do  so, 

"  In  the  meantime,  for  some  eighty  years,  England,  Scotland, 
Ireland,  France  and  the  Xetheilands  were  so  fully  engaged  with 
their  own  internal  broils  al)out  religion,  as  well  as  mutual  wars 
on  this  and  on  other  accounts,  that  they  had  neither  i)ower  nor 
leisure  lo  attend  to  foreign  settlements.  During  this  time  it  is 
believed,  that  from  Florida  to  Greenland  there  was  not  one 
resident  European  family.  But  after  1598,  these  nations  sent 
out  men  to  fish  jind  trade,  and  afterwards  to  settle  as  colonies— 
the  French  to  Canada  and  Acadia,  the  Englisli  to  Newfound- 
land, Bermuda  and  Virginia."     [Pr.  N.  E.  Chron.,  ]>.  2.) 

As  Hudson,  an  Englishman,  in  1609,  in  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company's  service,  penetrated  the  British  territory,  so  by  the 
Dutch,  settlements  were  made  in  Albany  and  New  York  in 
1614. 

AVe  have  seen  the  Puritan  Episcopalians  from  1572,  in  Eng- 
land, extensively  becoming  Presbyterians,  the  only  thing  else 
they  could,  with  their  Bibles  in  their  hands,  become,  until  they 
were  supiiressed  in  1591  by  the  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commis- 
sion Court ;  we  have  also  traced  the  movements  of  those  who  at 
Plymouth,  Mass.,  in  1620,  in  almost  exact  Presbyterial  form, 
sought 

"A  dmrch  without  a  hishop, 
^  state  without  a  king." 

Others  follow.  In  1627  Governor  Dudley  and  others  obtained 
a  patent  for  that  part  of  Virginia  called  (since  1614)  New  Eng- 
land, under  the  title  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company.  On 
June  20th,  1628,  Captain  John  Endicott  sailed  i'or  Neamkeak  as 
agent,  to  i)repare  a  way  for  the  patentees. 

This  place,  Neamkeak,  was  selected  by  a  trader,  a  "Mr. 
Conant,  in  1625,  who  conceived  that  in  aftertimes  it  may  prove 
a  receptacle  for  such  in  England  as,  on  account  of  religion^ 
would  be  willing  to  settle  in  these  parts  of  the  world  and  (return- 


APPENDICES.  495 

ing  that  winter  he)  ^ives  an  intimation  of  it  to  his  friends  in 
EncTland."     {Ih.,  ]>.  157.) 

To  Npamke-ak  lie  returned  in  1626  to  hve.  This  information 
spread,  and  was  so  encouraijin.i?  that  on  Ai^ril  17th,  1()29,  the 
Bev.  Messrs.  Francis  Hi,G:ginson  and  Samuel  Skellon  (P^piseojjal 
ministers),  vvitli  other  colonists,  were  sent  out  from  England  by 
the  company. 

The  former  had  been  silenced  for  nonconformity.  {lb.,  182.) 
Tliey  were  both  men  of  mark  for  excellence  of  character,  and  to 
tiiem  the  germinating  and  moidding  of  tiie  enterprise  in  its  re- 
ligious asi)ects  were  committed  by  the  governor  and  company. 

"Before  leaving  England,  ''the  great  Mr.  Hildersham.  of  Ash- 
ley," viewing  the  delicacy  as  well  as  the  imi)ortance  of  the  en- 
terprise, "  advised  these  first  planters  to  agree  fully  ui)on  their 
form  of  church  government  before  coming  into  Xew  England." 
Tliey  answer,  '"We  have  indeed  agreed  upon  little  further  tlian 
this'g^iK'i'al  princii)le  {lb.,  ]h  184),  tliat  tiie  reformation  of  the 
church  vas  to  be  endeavored  according  to  tlie  written  word  of 
God."  To  the  company's  committee  these  two  ministers  said, 
"  We  [ire  of  one  judgment  and  fully  agreed  in  the  manner  how- 
to  exercise  our  ministry." 

Tliey  were  conscientious  Episcopalians,  and  here  was  the  re- 
ligious germ  of  the  enterprise,  viz.:  ''the  reformation  of  the 
church."  This  the  companv  and  chaplains  could  not  do  in 
England,  but  tliis  they  woifld  ''endeavor^'  to  do  in  America 
*'  according  to  the  written  word  of  God." 

They  agreed  upon  little  further  than  this,  but  npon  this  they 
were  agreed.  As  to  their  future  "  form  of  church  government," 
before  coming  to  New  England,  these  two  ministers,  engaged  by 
the  iirst  planters,  had  (it  would  seem)  agreed  fully  npon  it,  as 
the  two  told  the  committee  that  they  were  "  agreed  and  fully  of 
one  judgment  how  to  exercise  their  ministry." 

On  June  24th,  1629,  these  two  (with  two  other)  ministers,  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  Smith  and  Bright,  arrived,  and  from  Psalms 
Ixxvi.  2,  they  called  Neamkeak,  Salem  {Peace). 

As  we  know  what  our  Saviour  "  commanded  "  Ins  apostles,  by 
learning  what  they  have  taught  his  followers  in  all  ages  "  to  ob- 
serve," so  we  learn  the  "  general  princi])le  "  ado])ted  by  these 
men  by  what  they  carried  out  and  established  :  a  new  church 
order,  different  from  both  Presbyterianism  and  Prelacy.  For 
''July  20th,  Governor  Endicott,"  the  civil  power,  not  any  ec- 
clesiastical, "sets  apart  as  a  day  of  fasting,  prayer,  and  the  trial 
and  choice  of  a  pastor  and  teacher."  On  "  July  28th  Mr.  Hig- 
ginsoii,  being  desired  by  the  tliirty  associates,  draws  up  a  con- 
fession of  faith  and  a  covenant."  {lb.,  ]).  190.)  "  On  August 
6tli,  being  Thursday,  by  the  governor's  api)ointment  "  (an  officer 
amenable  only  to  his 'company  and  to  the  Biitish  Episcopal 
crown),  "after  the  two  ministers  had  preached,  the  confession 
and  covenant  were  read  to  the  assembly,  some  three  hundred  in 
number."  To  these  the  thirty  willing  to  begin  a  chnrcli  organi- 
zation assented,  after  which  ''  Mr.  Higginson,  with  three  or  foiu: 


496  APPENDICES. 

of  the  gravest "  of  the  thirty  members  of  the  "society,"  perme- 
ated (as  was  taken  for  granted)  with  the  power  of  ''  Presbytery," 
''proceeded  to  the  laying  on  of  hands  "  on  Mr.  Skeltoii  with 
prayer.  This  constitutes  Mr.  Skelton  their  i)ast()r,  and  lie 
stands  forth  in  a  r.ew  liL>lit.  His  Episcoi)al  ordination  is 
vainped  up,  and  now  a  new  si)ecies  of  ''tactual  succession," 
"•  i)art  of  iron  and  pait  of  clay  "  is  upon  him.  His  was  an  (and 
the  (irst)  American  Protestant  ordination.  "Then  Mr.  Skel- 
ton,"  with  others  of  the  thirty,  conveys  a  moiety  of  "  the  power 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  "  thus  obtained,  •'  by  a  like  ])r()cess  to 
Mr.  Higginson,  by  which  lie  becomes  their  teacher."  {lb.,  p. 
1S9.)  A  Mr.  Houghton  was  then  ordained  as  a  ruling  elder. 
{!().,  p.  190.)  "Messrs.  Skelton  and  Higginson  havinu-  been  or- 
dained by  bisho])s  in  the  Church  of  England,  this  ordination  at 
Salem  was  only  (they  say)  to  this  particular  tiock  founded  on 
their  free  election.  But  as  there  seems  to  be  a  rciXMicd  bnposi- 
Hon  of  hands,  the  former,  on  July  20th,  may  only  signify  their 
previous  sei)aration  for  their  solcnm  charge  ;  and  this  latter 
of  August  6th  theii-  actual  investiture  therein."     (lb.,  p.  191.) 

This  is  the  manner,  plare  and  time  in  whicli,  and  at  which 
*' Congregationalism  i  began  to  take  and;  took  its  rise  "  and  saw 
the  light  of  day  "  in  New  England." 

It  was  not  European  born  nor  even  "seaborn."  but  born  in 
Salem,  Massachusetts — as  was  Pi-esbyteiianism  in  Jerusalem, 
Prelacy  in  Rome  and  Protestant  Ei)iscoi)acy  in  London. 

As  to  the  spot  of  its  birth  it  was  not  at"  Plymouth  Rock," 
but  at  "Salem."  For  commerce,  the  i)lace  was  judiciously  se- 
lected by  Mr.  Conant.  It  is  "  on  a  tongue  of  land  two  miles  by 
three-quaiters  of  one  mile, between  the  North  and  South  rivers, 
in  latitude  42^  81'  18",  in  longitude  70^  53'  53".  It  has  a  con- 
venient  and  well-])rotected  harbor,  was  extensively  commercial, 
until  eclipsed  by  13oston  in  the  nineteenth  century,  has  high  lit- 
erary advantages  now,  some  twenty  churches,  and  a  population 
of  about  twenty-five  thousand  souls.  There  and  then  the  third 
"  order  "  of  ecclesiastical  polity  in  Christendom  began. 

This  society  in  Salem,  which  has  been  said  to  be  "the  first 
complete  church  organization  ever  effected  in  North  America  " 
{Gazetteer),'-'' ih^^v^t  Puritan  church  organized  in  America" 
{7>aic/i(?Zf7er),  has  risen  so  high  tliat  for  generations  the  othcial 
successors  of  those  God-fearing  men  who  ofllciated  at  her  birth, 
are  elevated  by  the  innate  nature  of  Congregationalism  to  the 
plane  of  Unitarianism.  Emmanuel,  the  "I  am,"  has  only  a 
name,  nothing  more,  and  no  place  on  the  original  church  site. 

Such  is  the  "  Hub  "  of  the  all  Congregational  churches  in  Amer- 
ica. After  these  arrangements  were  completed. as  ''the  church 
professed  to  exercise  discipline  ui)on  scandalous  persons  and  to 
no  lonrier  re<id  common  prayer  (which  had  been  read  till  August 
Gth,  1629),  two  brothers,  a  lawyer  and  a  mercliant,  begin  to 
gather  a  separate  company  and  to  read  common  i)rayer,  upon 
which  the  governor  convents  them  before  him,  and  finding  their 
speeches  and  practices  tending  to  mutiny  and  faction,  he  sends 
them  back  to  England."    {Pr.  and  Math.) 


APPENDICES.  497 

As  this  colony  ^-ere  Episcopalians  when  they  left  England, 
the  lawyer  and  merchant  thought  it  to  be  more  like  common 
sense  to  continue  so,  and  did  not  understand  this  new  idea,  this 
way  of  reforming  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  whicli 
sprang  up  before  their  eyes  and  now  required  the  implicit  obe- 
dience of  churclmien  as  well  as  of  the  initiated. 

Trade  and  religion  were  combined  in  this  colonization,  but 
these  brothers  did  not  understand  the  Kev.  Mr.  Higginson  wlien 
he  said  :  "  If  any  man  make  trade  to  religion,  as  thirteen  to 
twelve,  he  mistakes  the  character  of  a  New  England  man,"  so 
tliey  were  "  couvented  "  and  reshipped  for  not  making  religion 
to  trade,  as  tliirteen  to  twelve. 

By  vessels  returning  this  autumn  tidings  of  the  prosperity 
(notwithstanding  many  deaths)  at  Salem,  stirred  up  others  of 
the  brethren  in  England  (whose  yoke  unjustly  imposed  was 
heavy)  to  emigrate  to  America,  and  at  "  the  latter  end  of  1629  a 
Congregational  church  is  by  a  pious  people  gathered  in  the  New 
Hospital  at  Plymouth,  in  England.  They  keep  a  day  of  prayer 
and  fasting,  the  Ptcv.  Mr.  White,  of  Dorchester  preaches,  and 
they  choose  and  call  the  Rev.  Messrs.  VVarham  and  Maverick  to 
be  tiieir  officers  and  ordain  them  at  tlie  same  time."   (P.,  p.  200.) 

Thougli  associated  hi  (and  by  information  carried  to)  England, 
in  a  manner  similar  to  tlie  society  at  Neamkeak,  yet  they  And 
none  of  this  new  form  of  order  in  England  and  they  hasten  to 
America  to  enjoy  its  associations  in  the  only  place  in  which 
these  could  be  then  found. 

''  On  March  20th,  1630,  these  sail  for  the  Massachusetts  "  (P., 
p.  204  ^  and  "  on  May  30th  arrive  at  Nantasket,  thence  they  go 
to  Charlestown."    (P.,  p.  207.) 

In  ten  j'^ears,  however,  it  was  carried  back  to  England,  all  but 
the  theocracy  and  Athenian  democracy,  which  were  interwoven 
into  the  system  in  the  Bay,  but  were  inopetative  in  Great 
Britain. 

"  On  April  7th,  Governor  Winthrop,  with  five  other  gentle- 
men and  the  Rev.  George  Phillips,  on  board  the  'Arabella,'  at 
Yarmouth,  sign  an  humble  request  of  His  Majesty's  loyal  sub- 
jects, the  governor  and  company  late  gone  to  New  England,  to 
the  rest  of  their  brethren  in  and  of  the  Church  of  England;  for 
the  obtaining  of  their  prayers  and  the  removal  of  suspicions  and 
misconstruction  of  their  intentions."  (Printed  in  London,  4to, 
1630.)     (7^,p.  205.) 

''On  June  12th  they  arrive  in  the  Bay,  go  ashore  to  their 
friends  in  Salem  "  (P.,  p.  209),  and  on  "  July  8th  they  keep  a  day 
of  thanksgiving  through  all  their  plantations  for  their  experience 
of  the  Divine  goodness."     (P.,  p.  211.) 

Whether  any  of  the  wives  and  children  of  the  Pilgrims  left  in 
Europe  had  ])reviously  come  to  them  or  not,  does  not  fully  ap- 
]iear.  but  the  record  says  :  "  Thirty-five  of  our  friends,  with  their 
families,  from  Leyden,  left  London  in  May  and  arrived  at  New 
Plymouth  in  August,  1629.  Their  expenses  our  undertakers  pay 
gratis,  beside  giving  them  houses,  grounds  to  plant  on,  and 
32 


498  APPENDICES. 

maintaining  them  above  thirteen  months  before  they  have  a  har- 
vest of  their  own."    (P. ,  pp.  192, 193.) 

Another  company  of  Ley  den  friends  (of  the  Robinson  Church) 
were  shipped  in  March,  1630,  and  arrived  in  New  Eiigland  in 
May,  all  the  expenses  of  wliom  (above  £550)  the  new  Plymouth 
undertakes  to  pay  gratis.  They  then  provide  for  them  food  for 
sixteen  or  eighteen  months  before  they  have  a  harvest  of  their 
own,  which  comes  near  to  as  much  more,  a  rare  example  of 
brotherly  love  and  Christian  care  in  performing  their  promises 
to  their  brethren,  even  beyond  their  power."  {lb.,  p.  201.) 
"  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."     (Matt.  vii.  20.) 

This  ''  colony  of  pious  people,  who  also  came  on  account  of  re- 
ligion only,  were  of  a  denomination  somewhat  different  from 
them  of  Plymouth,  who.  twenty-eight  years  before,  separated 
from  the  Church  of  England,  and  were  called  Separatists,  but 
the  latter,  those  of  Massacimsetts  Bay,  with  the  colonies  issuing 
from  them— Puritans— were  till  now,  1630,  p7-oft .s.^tcZ 7)i<:'m6e)*s  of 
the  Church  of  Em/JancV  (P.,  p.  213.)  ''On  June  24th,  1629, 
the  liev.  Mr.  Bright,  with  others,  removes  to  Charlestown, 
where  he  stays  above  a  year,"  and  "  on  August  27th,  1630,  Mr. 
John  Wilson  (who  was  formerly  an  Episcopal  minister  in  Sud- 
bury), was  there  chosen  and  ordained  teaching  elder,  or  pastor. 
This  was  the  first  ordination  of  an  elder  in  Massachusetts 
Bay,"  and  his  "extent  now  reaches  on  both  sides  of  the  Charles 
river."    (P.,  p.  247.) 

Thus  increasing  with  the  using,  this  new  church  polity  contin- 
ued to  "  rise,"  and  while  Mr.  AVilson,  when  installed  as  minister 
at  Charlestown  at  the  above  date, ''  submitted  unto  an  ordination 
with  an  imposition  of  such  hands  as  were  by  the  church  invited 
so  to  pronounce  the  benediction  of  heaven  upon  him,  yet  it  was 
done  with  a  protestation  by  all,  that  it  should  be  only  a  sign  of 
his  election  to  t\\e  charge  of  his  new  flock,  without  any  intention 
that  he  should  thereby  renounce  the  ministry  he  had  received  in 
England."  {Math.  3/a(y.,  vol.  i.,  p.  79.)  The  next  rising  of  this 
new  polity  was  in  Dorchester,  then  ''Boston,  which  issued  out 
of  Charlestown  "  (76.),  then  "  succeeded  one  in  Roxbury,  then 
one  in  Lynn,  and  a  seventh  at  Watertown."    {Ih.) 

This  development  continued  as  population  increased,  and  in 
seventeen  years  "it  was  on  many  accounts  necessary  for  them 
to  make  a  declaration  of  their  church  order,"  which  they  did  in 
1648,  and  called  "the  Cambridge  Platform."  The  number  of 
churches  in  the  Bay  colony  had  at  this  date  increased  to  thirty- 
nine.  The  ministers  and  elders,  as  they  compared  usages, 
"  committed  these  to  writing  as  the  good  hand  of  God  had 
moulded  them." 

"  Hence,  the  manner  in  which  Congregationalism  took  its  rise 
in  New  England,  renders  it  sufficiently  divine."  {Christian 
Obser.,  vol.  i..  No.  8,  August,  1847.) 

Although  the  Episcopalians  had  inhabited  in  Virginia  above 
twenty  years,  and  the  Dutch  Presbyterians  had  occupied  in  New 
York  for  some  fifteen,  and  the  Pilgrims  had,  in  1620,  adopted 


APPENDICES.  499 

their  "church  order,"  and  were  supposed  to  be  a  church,  yet, 
by  New  Enghind  writers,  beside  those  quoted  above,  J.  Thomas, 
M.  D.,  and  T.  Baldwin,  Editors  of  "  Lippincott's  Pronouncing 
Gazetteer,"  it  is  asserted  that  "  this  was  the  first  complete 
church  organization  ever  effected  in  North  America."  Whether 
this  were  true  or  not,  it  was  undoubtedly  the  first  one  of  this 
species  as  radically,  essentially  and  forever  distinct  from,  and 
in  opposition  to  both  Presbyterianism  and  Prelacy. 

This  young  maiden  looks  very  fair.  Let  her  birthday,  Thurs- 
day, August  6th,  1629,  be  entered  on  the  Calendar.  The  off- 
spring of  "circumstances  "  and  of  the  invention  and  usages  of 
men  ;  her  progeny  (and  they  are  very  many)  maintain,  that  "all 
tihurch  power  resides  in  the  churcli  and  not  in  church  officers, 
and  resides  in  each  particular  church  directly  and  originally  by 
virtue  of  the  express  or  implied  compact' of  its  members." 
{Boston  Congregational  Almanac,  1847,  p.  43.)  While  this  sys- 
tem is  in  so  far  based  on  Divine  revelation,  as  to  say,  "  Go  to, 
let  us  make,"  ''let  us  build,"  "let  us  make  and  let  us  return,^' 
"  we  will  neither  eat  nor  drink  till  we  have,"  yet,  it  does  not  in- 
clude and  fully  represent  the  ' '  all  Scripture  which  is  given  by 
inspiration  of  God  and  is  all  profitable,  requiring  those  who  rule 
to  rule  with  diligence." 

It  is  at  best  only  an  eclectic  theory.  If  we  can  believe  the 
prince  of  New  England  divines,  Jonathan  Edwards,  it  is  an 
"  unsettled,  independent  and  confused  way  of  church  govern- 
ment, while  the  Presbyterian  is  more  consistent  with  reason, 
with  Scripture  and  with  the  nature  of  things."  It  is  still  "'un- 
settled and  confused,"  for  their  National  Congregational  Coun- 
cil of  1880,  appointed  nine  men  to  appoint  twenty-five  others  to 
prepare  a  creed.  This  is  a  wise  course,  and  the  denomination 
could  at  once  prove  it  to  be  so,  by  adopting  "the  New  England 
Primer,"  which,  it  is  avowed,  "  eight-tenths  "  of  their  ministers 
do  not  believe.  This  would  be  an  honor  to  the  dead,  and  an 
honor  and  vast  blessing  to  their  posterity  and  millions  of  others 
of  mankind.    May  "  the  Lord  hasten  it  in  his  time." 

That  Council  also  proposed  to  have  "  a  tablet  prepared  for  the 
Rev.  John  Robinson,  upon  the  inner  walls  of  the  cathedral  of 
St.  Peter,  in  Leyden,  under  whose  pavement  Robinson  lies 
buried,"  "as  neither  bust, portrait,  nor  even  a  hint  of  his  physi- 
cal presence  remains."  This  ought  to  have  been  done  genera- 
tions ago,  for  he  there  "  so  defended  the  truth  against  sundry 
Arminian  Theses  of  Episcopius,  as  to  cause  many  to  give  praise 
to  God,  that  the  Truth  had  so  famous  a  victory.  His  successful 
disputation  procured  him  then  much  respect  and  honor  from 
those  learned  men  and  others."    [Pr.  iV.  U.  Chron.,  p.  38.) 

Happy  would  it  be  for  themselves  and  others,  if,  as  a  monu- 
ment to  him,  they  would  adopt  his  doctrines  and  "church 
order." 


500  APPENDICES. 

B-— Page  35. 

Confession  of  Faiths  made  with  common  accord  by  the  Beformed 
churches  of  the  Kingdom  of  France. 

Article  I. — We  believe  and  confess  that  there  is  one  only 
God,  who  is  a  single  and  simple  being,  spiritual,  eternal,  invisi- 
ble, unchangeable,  infinite,  incomprehensible,  ineffable,  v^^ho 
can  do  all  things,  who  is  all  wise,  all  good,  all  just,  and  all 
merciful. 

II.— This  God  manifests  himself  in  this  manner  to  men,  first 
by  his  works,  as  much  by  the  creation  as  by  tlie  ]neservation 
and  conduct  of  them.  Secondly,  and  more  clearly,  by  his  word, 
which  in  the  beginning  revealed  by  oracles,  has  been  since  then 
committed  to  writing,  by  writing  in  the  books  which  we  call 
the  Holy  Scripture. 

III.— All  this  Holy  Scripture  is  comprised  in  the  canonical 
books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  of  whicli  the  number  fol- 
lows. The  five  books  of  Moses,  known  as  Genesis,  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  Numbers,  Deuteronomy.  Item,  Joshua,  Judges, 
Ruth,  the  first  and  second  book  of  Samuel,  the  first  and  second 
book  of  Kings,  the  first  and  second  book  of  Chronicles,  other- 
wise called  Paraliporaena,  the  first  book  of  Ezra.  Item,  Nehe- 
miah,  the  book  of  Esther,  Job,  the  Psalms  of  David,  the  Pro- 
verbs or  Sentences  of  Solomon,  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  called 
the  Preacher ;  the  Canticles  of  Solomon.  Item,  the  book  of 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  Daniel, 
Hosea,  Joel,  Amos,  Obadiah,  Jonas,  Micah,  Nahum,  Habakkuk, 
Zephaniah,  Haggai,  Zechariah,  Malachi.  Item,  the  Holy  Gos- 
pel according  to  St.  Matthew,  according  to  St.  Mark,  according 
to  St,  Luke,  and  according  to  St.  John,  Item,  the  second  book 
of  St.  Luke,  otherwise  called  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Item, 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  to  the  Romans  one,  to  the  Corinthians 
two,  to  the  Galatians  one,  to  the  Ephesians  one,  to  the  Philip- 
pians  one,  to  the  Colossians  one,  to  the  Thessalonians  two,  to 
Timothy  two,  to  Titus  one,  to  Philemon  one.  Item,  the  Epis- 
tle to  the  Hebrews,  the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  the  first  and  second 
Epistle  of  St,  Peter,  the  first,  second  and  third  Epistle  of  St. 
John,  the  Epistle  of  St.  Jude.  Item,  the  Apocalypse  or  Revela- 
tion of  St,  John, 

iy._^\re  know  these  books  to  be  Canonical,  and  the  most 
certain  rule  of  our  faith  ;  not  so  much  by  the  common  accord 
and  consent  of  the  church,  as  by  the  testimony  and  internal 
persuasion  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  makes  us  to  discern  them 
from  the  other  Ecclesiastical  books,  upon  which,  though  they 
may  be  useful,  one  cannot  found  any  article  of  faith, 

y^_\ye  believe  that  tlie  word  which  is  contained  in  these 
books,  has  proceeded  from  God,  from  whom  alone  it  takes  its 
authority,  and  not  from  men.  And  for  as  much  as  it  is  the  rule 
of  all  truth,  containing  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  service  of 
God  and  for  our  salvation,  it  is  not  lawful  to  men,  nor  even  to 


^  APPENDICES.  501 

angels,  to  add  to,  diminish  or  alter  it.  "Whence  it  follows,  that 
neither  antiquity,  nor  customs,  nor  the  multitude,  nor  human 
wisdom,  nor  judgments,  nor  sentences,  nor  edicts,  nor  decrees, 
nor  councils,  nor  visions,  nor  miracles,  should  be  opposed  to  this 
Holy  Scripture  ;  but  on  tlie  contrary  all  things  should  be  exam- 
ined, regulated  and  reformed  according  to  it.  And  following 
that,  we  acknowledge  the  three  creeds,  known  as  the  Apostles', 
the  Nicene  and  the  Athanasian,  because  they  are  conformed  to 
the  Word  of  God. 

VI.— This  Holy  Scripture  teaches  us  that  in  this  only  and  sin- 
gle Divine  Being,  whom  we  have  confessed,  there  are  three  per- 
sons, the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Father, 
first  cause,  principle  and  origin  of  all  things.  The  Son,  his 
word  and  eternal  wisdom.  The  Holy  Spirit,  his  virtue,  power 
and  efficacy.  The  Son  eternally  begotten  of  the  Father.  The 
Holy  Spirit,  eternally  proceeding  from  them  both  ;  the  three 
persons  not  confused,  but  distinct,  and  nevertheless  not  divided, 
but  of  one  same  being,  eternity,  power  and  equality.  And  in 
that  we  acknowledge  what  has  been  determined  by  the  ancient 
councils,  and  detest  all  sects  and  heresies  which  have  been 
rejected  by  the  holy  doctors,  as  St.  Hilaire,  St.  Athanasius,  St. 
Ambrose  and  St.  Cyril. 

YII.—  We  believe  that  God  in  three  co-operating  persons,  by 
his  virtue,  wisdom  and  incomprehensible  goodness,  has  created 
all  things,  not  only  the  heaven,  the  earth  and  all  which  is  con- 
tained therein,  but  also  the  invisible  spirits,  of  which  some  have 
fallen  and  stumbled  into  perdition,  others  have  persevered  in 
obedience.  That  the  first  being  corrupted  in  malice,  are  enemies 
of  all  good,  consequently  of  the  whole  church.  The  second, 
having  been  preserved  by  the  grace  of  God,  are  ministers  for 
glorifying  the  name  of  God,  and  serving  in  the  salvation  of  his 
elect. 

VIII. — We  believe  that  not  only  has  he  created  all  things,  but 
that  he  governs  and  conducts  them,  disposing,  ordering  accord- 
ing to  his  will  all  that  which  is  in  the  world ;  not  that  he 
may  be  the  author  of  evil,  or  that  sin  can  be  imputed  to  him, 
since  his  will  is  the  sovereign  and  infallible  rule  of  all  righteous- 
ness and  equity  ;  but  he  has  admirable  means  of  employing  in 
such  a  manner  the  devils  and  evil  ones,  that  he  can  convert  into 
good  the  evil  that  they  do,  and  of  which  they  are  guilty.  And 
thus  in  confessing  that  nothing  is  done  without  the  providence 
of  God,  we  adore  in  humility  the  secrets  which  are  concealed 
from  us,  without  asking  above  our  measure,  but  rather  we  apply 
to  our  use  what  is  shown  us  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  that  we  may- 
be in  peace  and  safety,  for  as  much  as  God,  who  has  all  things 
subject  to  himself,  watches  over  us  with  a  paternal  care,  so  that 
there  shall  not  fall  a  hair  of  our  head  without  his  will.  And 
meanwhile  he  holds  the  devils  and  all  our  enemies  bridled,  so 
that  they  cannot  do  any  wrong  to  us  without  his  permission. 

IX.— We  believe  that  man,  having  been  created  pure  and  per- 
fect, and  made  like  the  image  of  God,  has  by  his  own  sin  fallen 


502  APPENDICES. 

from  the  grace  that  he  had  received.  And  thus  has  alienated 
himself  from  God,  who  is  the  fomitain  of  justice  and  of  all  good, 
so  that  his  nature  is  wholly  corrupted.  And  being  blinded  in 
his  spirit  and  depraved  in  his  heart,  has  lost  all  integrity,  with- 
out having  anything  left.  And  although  he  may  still  have  some 
discretion  of  good  and  evil,  notwithstanding,  we  assert,  that 
that  which  he  has  of  clearness  is  changed  into  darkness  when  it 
is  a  question  of  seeking  God.  So  tliat  he  can  by  no  means  ap- 
proacii  him  by  his  intelligence  and  reason.  And  although  he 
may  have  a  will  by  which  he  is  incited  to  do  this  or  that,  never- 
theless it  is  wholly  captive  under  sin  ;  so  that  he  has  no  liberty 
to  good  but  that  which  God  gives  him. 

X.— We  believe  that  all  tlie  race  of  Adam  is  infected  with 
such  contagion,  which  is  original  sin,  and  a  hereditary  vice,  and 
not  merely  an  imitation,  as  the  Pelagians  have  v/ished  to  assert, 
which  we  detest  in  their  errors.  And  we  do  not  consider  that 
there  is  need  of  inquiring  how  the  sin  comes  from  one  man  to 
another,  since  it  is  enough  that  that  which  God  had  given  him 
was  not  for  him  alone,  but  for  all  his  race,  and  thus  that  in  his 
person  we  have  been  denuded  of  all  good,  and  are  fallen  into  all 
poverty  and  malediction. 

XI. — We  believe  also  that  this  vice  is  indeed  sin,  which  suf- 
fices to  condemn  all  mankind,  even  to  the  babes  from  the  womb 
of  the  mother,  and  that  for  such  it  is  accounted  before  God  ; 
even  that  after  baptism  it  is  always  sin  as  to  the  misdeed,  al- 
though the  condemnation  of  it  may  be  abolished  to  the  children 
of  God,  not  imputing  it  to  them  by  his  gratuitous  goodness. 
Moreover,  that  this  is  a  perversity,  producing  always  fruits  of 
malice  and  rebellion,  as  the  most  holy,  although  they  resist  it, 
are  not  removed  from  being  infected  with  infirmities  and  faults 
while  they  live  in  this  world. 

XII.— We  believe  that  from  this  general  corruption  and  con- 
demnation, into  which  all  men  are  plunged,  God  draws  out  those 
whom  in  his  eternal  and  immutable  council  he  has  elected  by 
his  goodness  and  mercy  only,  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  without 
consideration  of  their  works,  leaving  others  in  this  same  corrup- 
tion and  condemnation  to  show  in  them  his  justice,  as  in  the  first 
he  makes  to  appear  the  riches  of  his  mercy.  For  the  one  are  not 
better  than  the  otliers,  until  that  God  discerns  them,  according 
to  his  immutable  council  which  he  has  determined  in  Jesus 
Christ  before  the  creation  of  the  world  ;  and  none  also  can  gain 
admittance  to  such  good  of  his  own  power,  since  from  our  na- 
ture we  cannot  have  a  single  good  eoiotion,  nor  affection,  nor 
thought,  until  that  God  has  prepossessed  and  disposed  us  to  it. 

XIII.— We  believe  that  in  Jesus  Christ  himself  all  that  was 
required  for  our  salvation  has  been  offered  and  revealed  to  us. 
Who  being  given  for  our  salvation  has  been  made  to  us  at  the 
same  time  wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification  and  redemption, 
so  that  in  declining  him  one  renounces  the  mercy  of  the  Father, 
in  which  only  he  grants  us  to  have  refuge. 

XIV.— We  believe  that  Jesus  Christ,  being  the  wisdom  of  God 


APPENDICES.  503 

and  his  eternal  Son,  has  worn  our  flesh  in  order  to  be  God  and 
man  in  one  person,  even  man  similar  to  ns,  passible  in  body  and 
in  mind,  except  (in)  as  much  as  he  was  pure  from  all  stain. 
And  as  to  his  human  nature,  that  he  was  the  true  seed  of  Abra- 
ham and  of  David,  although  he  was  conceived  by  the  secret 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  In  which  we  detest  all  the  heresies 
which  have  anciently  troubled  the  churches,  and  specially  also 
the  diabolical  imaginations  of  Servet,  which  attributed  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  a  fantastic  divinity,  for  as  much  as  he  asserts  him  to 
be  the  idea  and  patron  of  all  things,  and  calls  him  personal  or 
figurative  Son  of  God,  and  finally  invents  him  a  body  of  three 
eternal  elements,  thus  mixing  and  destroying  both  natures. 

Xy.— We  believe  that  in  one  same  person,  known  as  Jesus 
Christ,  the  two  natures  are  truly  and  inseparably  conjoined  and 
united,  dwelling  nevertheless  each  nature  in  its  distinct  property, 
so  that  whereas  in  this  union  the  Divine  nature,  retaining  its 
property,  has  remained  uncreated,  infinite,  and  filling  all  things ; 
also  the  human  nature  has  remained  finite,  having  its  form, 
measure  and  property,  and  even  although  Jesus  Christ  in  rising 
again  from  the  dead  has  given  immortality  to  his  body,  never- 
theless he  has  not  removed  from  it  the  verity  of  its  nature.  And 
thus  we  regard  him  in  such  a  manner  in  his  divinity,  that  we  do 
not  divest  him  of  his  humanity. 

XVI. — We  believe  that  God,  in  sending  his  Son,  has  desired 
to  show  his  love  and  inestimable  goodness  towards  us,  in  giving 
him  up  to  death,  and  raising  him  again  from  the  dead,  in  order 
to  accomplish  all  justice,  and  that  we  may  obtain  celestial  life. 

XVII.— We  believe  that  by  the  unique  sacrifice  that  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  has  offered  on  the  cross,  Ave  are  reconciled  to  God, 
that  we  may  be  held  and  accounted  righteous  before  him ;  be- 
cause we  cannot  be  agreeable  to  him,  nor  partakers  of  liis  adop- 
tion, except  in  as  much  as  he  pardons  us  our  sins  and  effaces 
them.  Thus  we  protest  that  Jesus  Christ  is  our  entire  and  per- 
fect absolution,  that  in  his  death  we  have  complete  satisfaction, 
to  acquit  us  of  our  crimes  and  iniquities,  of  which  we  are  guilty 
and  can  only  be  delivered  by  this  remedy. 

XVIII.— We  believe  that  all  our  righteousness  is  founded  in 
the  remission  of  our  sins,  as  also  this  is  our  only  happiness,  as 
David  says,  this  is  why  we  reject  all  other  means  of  being  able  to 
vindicate  ourselves  before  God  ;  and  without  presuming  any  vir- 
tue or  merits,  we  simply  lay  hold  upon  the  obedience  of  Jesus 
Christ,  which  is  granted  us,  as  much  in  order  to  cover  all  our 
faults  as  to  make  us  find  grace  and  favor  before  God.  And  in 
reality,  we  believe  that  in  declining  this  foundation  as  little  as 
may  be,  we  would  not  be  able  to  find  elsewhere  any  repose,  but 
should  be  always  tortured  with  disquiet,  for  as  much  as  we  are 
never  peaceable  witli  God  until  we  are  fully  persuaded  of  being 
loved  in  Jesus  Christ,  since  we  are  worthy  of  being  hated  in 
ourselves. 

XIX.— We  believe  that  it  is  by  this  means  that  we  have  the 
liberty  and  privilege  of  invoking  God,  with  full  promise  that  he 


504  APPENDICES. 

will  show  himself  onr  Father.  For  we  should  not  have  any  ac- 
cess to  the  Father  if  we  did  not  address  (him)  by  this  Mediator. 
And  that  we  may  be  heard  in  his  name,  it  is  necessary  to  hold 
our  life  from  him  as  from  our  head. 

XX. — We  believe  that  we  are  made  partakers  of  this  right- 
eousness by  faith  only  ;  as  it  is  said,  that  he  has  suffered  to  pur- 
chase our  salvation  in  order  that  whosoever  believes  in  him 
should  not  perish.  And  that  this  is  done,  for  as  much  as  the 
promises  of  life,  which  are  given  us  in  him,  are  adapted  to  our 
use,  and  in  experiencing  the  effect  when  we  accept  them,  not 
doubting  but  being  assured  by  the  mouth  of  God,  we  shall  not 
be  disappointed.  Thus  the  righteousness  which  we  obtain  by 
faith  depends  upon  the  voluntary  promises  by  which  God 
declares  and  testifies  to  us  that  he  loves  us. 

XXI.— AVe  believe  that  we  are  enlightened  in  the  faith  by  the 
secret  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  that  this  is  a  free  and  special 
gift  which  God  grants  to  those  whom  he  thinks  fit,  so  that  be- 
lievers have  nothing  to  glory  in  of  it,  being  doubly  bound  be- 
cause they  have  been  preferred  to  the  otliers.  Also  that  faith  is 
not  merely  given  for  a  time  to  the  elect,  in  order  to  bring  them 
into  the  good  way,  but  to  make  them  continue  in  it  also  unto 
the  end.  For  as  it  is  in  God  to  make  the  beginning,  it  is  also  in 
him  to  finish. 

XXII.— AVe  believe  that  by  this  faith  we  are  regenerated  in 
newness  of  life,  being  naturally  subjected  to  sin.  Now  we  re- 
ceive by  faith  the  grace  to  live  holily  and  in  the  fear  of  God,  by 
accepting  the  promise  which  is  given  us  by  the  gospel,  knowing 
that  God  will  give  us  his  Holy  Spirit.  Thus  faith  not  only  does 
not  cool  the  desire  for  good  and  holy  living,  but  engenders  and  ex- 
cites it  in  us,  necessarily  producing  good  works.  Finally,  al- 
though God,  in  order  to  accomplish  our  salvation,  regenerates 
us,  reforming  us  in  well-doing,  nevertheless  we  confess  that  the 
good  works,  which  we  do  by  the  direction  of  his  Spirit,  do  not 
coQie  into  account  to  justify  us,  or  to  merit  that  God  take  us  for 
his  children,  because  we  should  be  always  floating  in  doubt  and 
alarm,  if  our  consciences  did  not  rest  on  the  atonement  by  which 
Jesus  Christ  has  acquitted  us. 

XXIII.— We  believe  that  all  the  figures  of  the  Law  have  ter- 
minated in  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  although  the  cere- 
monies are  no  longer  in  use,  nevertheless  the  substance  and  real- 
ity of  it  has  remained  to  us  in  the  person  of  him  in  whom  lies  all 
fulfilment.  Moreover,  it  is  necessary  to  assist  ourselves  with  the 
law  and  the  prophets,  as  much  to  regulate  our  life  as  to  be  con- 
firmed in  the  promises  of  the  gospel. 

XXIV.— We  believe,  since  Jesus  Christ  is  given  us  for  our 
only  Advocate,  and  that  he  commands  us  to  go  privately  in  his 
name  to  his  Father ;  and  even  that  it  is  not  lawful  for  us  to 
pray  except  in  following  the  form  which  God  has  taught  us  by 
his  word  ;  that  all  that  men  have  imagined  of  the  intercession 
of  dead  saints  is  only  the  error  and  deception  of  Satan,  in  order 
to  mislead  men  with  the  form  of  praying  right.    We  reject  also 


APPENDICES.  505 

all  other  means  which  men  presume  to  have  in  order  to  redeem 
themselves  towards  God,  as  derogatory  to  the  sacrifice  of  the 
death  and  passion  of  Jesus  Christ.  Finally,  we  hold  purgatory  for 
an  illusion  proceedingf  rom  this  same  shop  ;  from  which  have  also 
proceeded  monastic  vows,  pilgrimages,  prohibitions  of  marriage, 
and  of  the  use  of  meats,  ceremonious  observation  of  days,  auricu- 
lar confession,  indulgences,  and  all  other  sucli  things  by  which 
one  thinks  to  merit  grace  and  salvation.  Which  things  we  re- 
ject, not  only  for  the  false  opinion  of  merit  which  is  attached  to 
them,  but  also  because  they  are  human  inventions,  which  im- 
pose slavery  on  the  consciences. 

XXV.— Now,  because  we  enjoy  Jesus  Christ  only  by  the  gos- 
pel, we  believe  tliat  tlie  order  of  the  church,  which  has  been 
established  in  his  authority,  should  be  sacred  and  inviolable, 
consequently  that  the  church  cannot  exist  if  there  are  not  i)as- 
tors  who  may  have  the  charge  of  teaching,  whom  one  should 
honor  and  attend  with  reverence,  when  they  are  duly  called, 
and  exercise  faithfully  their  office.  Not  that  God  should  be 
bound  to  such  aids  or  inferior  means ;  but  because  it  pleases  him 
to  keep  us  under  such  check.  In  which  we  detest  all  fantastics, 
who  would  greatly  desire,  as  far  as  in  them  is,  to  destroy  the 
ministry  and  preaching  of  the  word  of  God  and  the  sacraments. 

XXVI. — We  believe,  therefore,  that  no  person  should  retire 
apart,  and  be  satisfied  with  his  person,  but  that  all  together 
should  keep  and  preserve  the  unanimity  of  the  church,  submit- 
ting to  common  instruction  and  to  the  yoke  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  that  in  any  place  where  God  shall  have  established  a  true 
order  of  church,  although  the  magistrates  and  their  edicts  may 
be  contrary  to  them,  and  that  all  those  who  do  not  side  there- 
with or  separate  from  it  oppose  the  ordinance  of  God. 

XXVII.— Nevertheless  we  believe  that  it  is  proper  to  discern 
carefully,  and  with  prudence,  what  is  the  true  church,  because 
too  much  they  abuse  this  title.  We  assert  then,  following  the 
word  of  God,  that  it  is  the  company  of  the  faithful  who  agree 
to  follow  this  word  and  the  pure  religion  whicli  proceeds  from 
it,  and  who  profit  from  it  all  the  time  of  their  life,  growing  and 
strengthening  themselves  in  the  fear  of  God,  according  as  they 
have  need  of  advancing  and  of  marching  always  further  on. 
Also,  although  they  strive  and  it  is  granted  to  them  to  liave  in- 
cessant recourse  in  the  remission  of  their  sins,  nevertheless  we 
do  not  deny  that  among  the  faithful  there  may  not  be  hypocrites 
and  reprobates  from  whom  wickedness  cannot  efface  the  title 
of  the  church. 

XXVIII.— Under  this  belief  we  protest  that  there  where  the 
word  of  God  is  not  received,  and  where  they  make  no  profession 
of  submitting  to  it,  and  where  there  is  no  usage  of  the  sacra- 
ments, to  speak  properly  one  cannot  judge  that  there  is  any 
church.  Consequently  we  condemn  the  assemblies  of  the 
Papacy,  since  the  \n\re  truth  of  God  is  banished  from  them,  in 
which  the  sacraments  are  corrupted,  weakened,  falsified,  or 
destroyed  entirely  ;  and  in  which  all  superstitions  and  idola- 


506  APPENDICES. 

tries  are  the  fashion.  We  hold,  therefore,  that  all  those  who 
are  concerned  in  such  acts  and  communicate  with  tliem,  part 
with  and  retrench  tlie  body  of  Jesus  Christ.  Nevertheless,  be- 
cause there  yet  remains  some  little  trace  of  the  church  in  the 
Papacy,  and  also  as  the  virtue  and  substance  of  baptism  has 
continued  in  it,  besides  that  the  efficacy  of  baptism  does  not  de- 
pend on  him  who  administers  it ;  we  acknowledge  those  who  are 
baptized  there  have  no  need  of  a  second  baptism.  However,  on 
account  of  the  corruptions  which  are  there,  one  cannot  present 
children  to  them  without  polluting  one's  self. 

XXIX.— As  to  the  true  church,  we  believe  that  it  should 
be  governed  according  to  the  polity  which  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  has  established  ;  this  is  that  there  be  pnstors,  overseers, 
and  deacons,  to  the  end  that  pure  doctrine  may  have  its  course, 
that  vice  may  be  punished  and  restrained,  and  that  the  ])oor 
and  all  others  afflicted  may  be  succoured  in  their  necessities, 
and  that  assemblies  may  be  made  in  the  name  of  God,  in 
which  great  and  small  may  be  edified. 

XXX.— We  believe  all  true  pastors,  in  any  place  that  they 
may  be,  to  have  the  same  authority  and  equal  power  under  one 
sole  chief,  sole  sovereign,  and  sole  universal  bishop,  Jesus 
Christ ;  and  for  tliis  cause  that  no  church  should  pretend  any 
power  or  lordship  over  another. 

XXXI.— We  believe  that  no  one  should  take  upon  himself  of 
his  own  authority  to  govern  the  church  ;  but  that  that  should 
be  done  by  election,  because  it  is  possible  and  as  God  permits  it. 
W^hich  excei)tion  we  add  thereto  specially,  because  it  has  been 
necessary  sometimes,  and  even  in  our  time  (in  which  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  church  was  interrupted),  that  God  should  have 
raised  up  people  in  an  extraordinary  manner,  in  order  again  to 
erect  the  church,  which  was  in  ruin  and  desolation.  But  al- 
though it  may  be  so,  we  believe  that  it  is  necessary  always  to 
submit  to  this  rule.  That  all  pastors,  overseers  and  deacons  shall 
have  proof  of  being  called  to  their  office. 

XXXII.— We  believe  also  that  it  is  good  and  profitable  that 
those  who  are  appointed  to  be  superintendents  consider  among 
themselves  wliat  means  they  should  take  for  the  government  of 
the  whole  body,  and  at  the  same  time  that  they  by  no  means 
shun  that  which  has  been  delivered  to  us  by  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Which  does  not  prevent  that  there  sliould  not  be  any 
sj)ecial  ordinances  in  each  place,  according  as  convenience  re- 
quires it. 

XXXIII.— Nevertheless  we  exclude  all  human  inventions,  and 
all  laws  which  one  would  wish  to  introduce  under  the  shadow 
of  the  service  of  God,  by  which  they  would  desire  to  bind  con- 
sciences ;  but  we  receive  only  what  makes  and  is  proper  for 
nourishing  concord,  and  to  hold  every  one,  from  the  first  to  the 
last,  in  obedience.  In  which  we  have  to  follow  what  our  Lord 
Jesus  has  proclaimed  as  to  excommunication,  which  we  approve 
and  confess  to  be  necessary  with  all  its  appurtenances. 

XXXIV.— We  believe  that  the  sacraments  are  added  to  the 


APPENDICES.  507 

word  for  more  ample  confirmation,  in  order  to  be  to  us  as 
])ledf^es  and  tokens  of  the  grace  of  God,  and  liy  this  means  to 
aid  and  relieve  our  faitli,  on  account  of  the  infirmity  and  rude- 
ness which  is  in  us ;  and  that  they  are  so  far  outward  signs,  that 
God  operates  by  them  in  the  power  of  his  Spirit,  in  order  that 
nothing  in  them  signifies  to  us  in  vain  ;  nevertheless  we  hold 
that  all  their  substance  and  reality  is  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  if  one 
sei)arate  them,  there  is  no  more  anything  but  shadow  and 
smoke. 

XXXV. — AVe  acknowledge  of  tliem  only  two,  common  to  all 
the  church,  of  which  the  first,  which  is  baptism,  is  given  us  for 
a  witness  of  our  adoption,  because  there  we  are  grafted  into  the 
body  of  Christ,  that  we  may  be  washed  and  cleansed  by  his 
blood,  and  then  renewed  in  holiness  of  life  by  his  Holy  Spii-it. 
We  hold  also,  although  we  may  be  baptized  biit  once,  that  the 
benefit  which  is  signitied  in  it  to  us  is  extended  to  life  and  deatii, 
in  order  that  we  may  have  a  permanent  signature  that  Jesus 
Christ  will  be  to  us  always  righteousness  and  sanctification. 
Now,  although  this  may  be  a  sacrament  of  faith  and  repentance, 
nevertheless  because  God  received  in  his  church  the  babes  with 
their  fathers,  we  assert  that  the  infants  begotten  of  believers 
ought  to  be  baptized. 

XXX VI.-  We  confess  that  the  holy  Lord's  Supper  (which  is 
the  second  sacrament)  is  to  us  a  witness  of  the  union  which  we 
have  with  Jesus  Christ ;  for  as  much  as  he  has  not  merely  once 
died  and  risen  again  for  us,  but  also  truly  restores  and  nourishes 
us  with  his  flesh  and  with  his  blood,  in  that  we  may  be  one  with 
him  ;  and  that  his  life  may  be  common  to  us.  Now,  although 
he  maybe  in  heaven  until  that  he  comes  to  judge  the  whole 
earth,  nevertheless  we  believe  that  by  the  secret  and  incompre- 
hensible power  of  his  Spirit,  he  nourishes  and  invigorates  us 
with  the  substance  of  his  body  and  his  blood.  We  hold,  indeed, 
that  this  is  done  spiritually,  iiot  in  order  to  put  instead  of  per- 
formance and  reajity,  imagination  or  thought ;  but  for  as  much 
as  this  mystery  excels  in  its  highness  the  measure  of  our  judg- 
ment, and  the  whole  order  of  mankind.  In  short,  because  it  is 
heavenly,  it  can  only  be  apprehended  by  faith. 

XXXVII.— We  believe  (as  it  has  been  said)  that  as  much  in 
the  Lord's  Supper  as  in  Ba])tism,  God  gives  us  truly  and  in  ef- 
fect that  which  he  represents  there.  And  consequently  we  unite 
with  the  symbols  the  real  jjossession  and  enjoyment  of  what  is 
there  presented  to  us.  And  thus  all  those  who  bring  to  the  holy 
table  of  Christ  a  pure  faith,  as  a  vessel  receive  truly  that  which 
the  symbols  testify  to  them  ;  that  is  that  the  body  and  the  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  serve  no  less  for  meat  and  drink  to  tiie  soul,  than 
the  bread  and  wine  do  to  the  body. 

XXXVIII.— Thus  we  hold  that  water,  being  a  decaying  ele- 
ment, is  not  allowed  to  testify  to  us  indeed  the  internal  cleans- 
ing of  our  soul  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  efiicacy  of  his 
Spirit,  and  that  bread  and  wine  being  given  to  us  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  serve  indeed  for  spiritual  nourishment,  for  as  much  as 


508  APPENDICES. 

they  show  us  as  to  the  eye,  the  flesh  of  Jesus  Christ  to  "be  to  u3 
our  meat,  and  his  blood  our  drink.  And  we  reject  the  fantastics 
and  heretics  who  are  not  willing  to  receive  such  signs  and  to- 
kens, since  our  Lord  Jesus  pronounced,  "This  is  my  body,  and 
this  cup  is  my  blood." 

XXXIX.— We  believe  that  God  desires  that  the  world  should 
be  governed  by  laws  and  polity,  that  there  may  be  some  curb  to 
restrain  the  inordinate  api)etites  of  the  world.  And  thus,  that 
lie  has  established  kingdoms,  republics,  and  all  other  kinds  of 
principalities,  whether  hereditary  or  otherwise,  and  all  that 
which  appertains  to  the  state  of  justice,  and  desires  to  be  recog- 
nized Author  of  them  ;  for  this  reason  he  lias  put  the  sword  in 
the  hand  of  the  magistrates  to  su])due  the  sins  committed  not 
only  against  the  second  table  of  the  commandments  of  God,  but 
also  against  the  lirst.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  for  his  sake 
that  not  only  one  suffers  that  superior's  rule,  but  also  that  one 
honor  them  and  hold  them  in  all  reverence,  iiolding  them  as  his 
lieutenants  and  ofticers,  whom  he  has  appointed  to  exercise  a 
legitimate  and  holy  charge. 

XL.— We  hold,  therefore,  that  it  is  necessary  to  submit  to 
their  laws  and  statutes,  paying  tributes,  imposts,  and  other  du- 
ties, and  to  wear  the  yoke  of  subjection  with  a  good  and  sincere 
will,  although  they  siiould  be  unfaithful,  provided  that  the  sov- 
ereign authority  of  God  remains  in  its  entireness.  Thus,  we 
detest  those  who  would  wish  to  reject  superiorities,  make  com- 
munity and  confusions  of  goods,  and  reverse  the  order  of  justice. 


0-— Page  106. 

"  Geneva  was  a  part  of  ancient  Gaul,  and  worshipped  Tapo- 
mis.  At  or  before  the  Reformation,  there  were  in  it  seven  papal 
churches.    The  Reformation  was  established  in  it  in  1535. 

"■  In  Berne,  it  was  established  by  the  magistrates  in  1528. 
Froment  (in  English,  wheat)  set  up  a  school  in  Geneva,  and  in 
it  taught  the  Protestant  religion.  On  January  1st,  1533,  great 
crowds  tried  to  hear  Froment.  The  Lord's  Supper  was,  for  the 
first  time,  dispensed  there  by  John  Guerin,  wiio  was  afterwards 
minister  of  Neufchatel,  in  Switzerland. 

'*  In  1551,  an  Italian  Protestant  church  was  gathered  in  Geneva, 
and  a  while  after,  a  Spanish  clunch.  Ruling  elders  are  chosen 
and  propounded,  as  ministers  are,  for  a  fortnight,  and  three  ask- 
ings, if  there  are  any  objections  to  their  ordination  V  None  are 
ordained  in  the  ministry  before  they  are  twenty-hve  years  old. 
They  preach  without  notes,  with  their  hats  on.  First  a  prayer, 
then  a  psalm.  A  person  appointed  sets  the  psalm  with  notes. 
The  psalms  are  sung  in  order,  from  first  to  last,  and  then  tiiey 
begin  with  the  first  psalm  again.  At  marriage,  the  bride  and 
bridegroom  are  dressed  in  black.  Children  are  always  baptized 
at  church.  They  observe  the  Lord's  Supper  four  times  each 
year,  and  receive  the  communion  standing.''^ 


INDEX. 


Articles,  doctrinal,  believed,  11. 

Ainswoi  th,  his  version,  V2. 

Asspmbly  of  the  Kirk  first  reforming,  13. 

Adams,  Jnhn,  190. 

Awakeninjj,  the,  105. 

Abercrombie,  R.,  108, 109, 113, 115, 116. 

Arminianism  ni>\v  become  respectable,  228. 

Argyle,  N.  Y.,  250. 

Antrim,  268,  314,  353,  366. 

All  expediont  not  advantageous,  274. 

Abbe  la  Poitre,  28S. 

Annan,  R.,  195,  222,  252,  259,  260,  262. 

Amherst  Asso.,  a  committee  to  wait  on,  295. 

Annan,  D.,  195,  222,  272,  273,  278. 

Albany  Syn-d.  314,  315,  327. 

Assent  to  her  creed  required,  342. 

Adams,  llev.  John  R.,  348,  355. 

Andover,  on  N.  E.  Primer,  founded,  364. 

Adams,  Rev.  Dr.  C.  \V .,  380. 

Allen,  Rev.  Dr.  B.  R.,  384. 

Adams,  Jolin  C,  Esq..  396,  397. 

i\d  imantine  chain,  the,  399. 

Advent,  church  of  the,  402. 

A.  R.  Pres.  of  Boston  constituted,  408. 

Arnold,  Rev.  G.  C,  420. 

Adherent,  a  generous  one,  465. 

"Abreast  of  the  times,"  460. 

Astonished,  a  congregation,  463. 

A  suicidal  course  apparently,  463. 

Balch,  the  Rev.  Mr.,  163. 

Bay  colony  divided  into  parishes,  19. 

Barnet,  321. 

Blair  and  Livingston,  put  back,  21. 

Baldwi.i,  Rev.  M.,  154. 

Blackstone,  Wm.,  17. 

Boothl-ay.  143,  160,  177. 

Bradford,  town  of,  133,  328. 

Bradford,  Governor,  478. 

Bath  Kol,  -^28. 

Boston,  375. 

Boston  calls  Murray,  156;  Asso.,  254,  256. 

Boston  secured  against  lo8=,  63. 

Boston  Pres.  constituted,  109,  111. 

Boyd,  Alex.,  ordained,  125, 126. 

Bi>;amy,  a  case  of,  186. 

Broken  state  of  Pies,  in  N.  E.,  269. 

lirowii,  Rev.  Jonathan,  290,  313. 

Barlow,  Joel,  294. 

Bedford,  311,  312,  353.  367. 

Beattie.  Rev  J.  M.,  345,  475. 

Brainard,  Rev.  T.  G.,  348,  355. 

Bixby,  Rev.  Mr.,  377. 

Bridgport,  Dr.  Hewett,  Mr.  Hinsdale,  384. 

Boston,  a  visit  to,  389,  390. 

Bills  not  filed,  405. 

Boston  Pies.,  tlie  second,  465. 

Boasting  excluded,  464. 

Burns,  Rev.  J.  A.,  469. 

Brewster,  Elder  W.,  479, 

Calvin'B  Institutes,  3, 1.3, 19. 
Change,  a,  in  ^'ew  York,  133. 


Craighead,  Rev.  Thos.,  47. 

Congregations  twelve,  150. 

Church  at  D.  College  unites  with  Pres.,  314. 

Chanrdng,  Kev.  W.  E.,316,  320,  321. 

Controversy  rife.  320. 

Cornwall,  Ct.,  327. 

Church  Street  Church,  336,  337. 

Centennial  commissionei-s,  190. 

Chester.  N.  H.,  91,  92. 

Catechising,  164, 

Changes  rung,  154, 

Caldwell,  John,  104, 

Convention  of  355,  266. 

Clarke,  Rev.  G.  M.,  464. 

Con\entiun,  ecclesiastical,  293. 

Clarke's  wh.irf  and  street,  22. 

Congregati-nalism  carried  to  England,  19. 

Congregationalism  rtinfurced,  334. 

Cromwell,  23. 

Colony  cliaiteis  united,  25, 

Conirover-y,  causes  of,  188, 189, 

Coleraine,  119,  12u,  213,  261,  265,  26P,  328. 

Congregationalism  "sufficiently  divine,"  19. 

Cotton,  Hooker  and  Stone,  arrival  of,  17. 

Cotton,  Hooker  and  Stone  obtained  a  new 

ordination,  17. 
Cotton,  Hooker  and  Stone  invited  to  assist 

in  England,  20. 
Civil  action  against  Pre.<byferians,  first,  21. 
Cotton  to  Cromwell  about  Scotch,  24, 
Collier,  Sir  G.,  176. 

Congregations,  Presbyterian,  in  N.  E,,  191. 
"Covenant,"  first  church,  Boston,  8. 
Coleman,  Dr..  102.  lOci. 
Courts,  church,  responsible,  298. 
Calvinism,  seceders  Irm,  342. 
"  Conventional  agreement  made,"  342, 
Conventional  aiiieement,  results  of,  343. 
Cook, Rev.  Joseph,  347. 
Cruikshanks,  Itev.  J.,  374. 
Childs,  Rev.  Dr.,  381. 
Ciiange,  a,  came,  394. 
Choate,  Rufus,  396,  399,  400,  403. 
Criticisms  given  to  the  man,  401. 
Cushing,  Caleb,  403, 404, 
Carver,  Rev.  T.  G.,  412. 
Claybaugh,  Rev,  W,  M.,  424,  425,  426. 
Cartier,  James.  427. 
China  saying  to  Britain,  427. 
Cathcart,  George,  416. 
Calhoun,  Rev.  S,  F.,  465, 
Clapperton,  Kev.  J.  H,,  469, 
Condition,  peculiar,  of  the  churches,  470. 
Covenanters,  473,  475. 

Dana  ordained,  290,  292,  348,  369-372,  421. 

Daille,  33,  40S,  4u9. 

Davenport.  103. 

Davidson,  Rev.  W.,  79,  80,  246, 

Discipline  neglected,  99,  100,  298. 

Dartmouth  College,  163,  203,  273,  329. 

Deiry,  siege  of,  44. 

Duiiiop,  Rev,  S.,  132;  ordained,  133. 

(509) 


510 


INDEX. 


Douglass,  Wm.,  M.  D.,  tells  tis,  137. 
Deacoii>i,  tlieir  office,  13G. 
Dorrance,  Rev.  Mr.,  12G. 
Doine.stic  worship  a  vitality,  289. 
Do  Lancy,  Rev.  R.  A.,  377. 
Daren,  Rev.  .J.  W.  Coleman,  384. 
"  invision,  rock  of,"  394. 
Di.scii)line,  standard  of,  lowered,  394. 
Deed,  a,  390. 

Dunn,  Rev.  J.  B.,  456,  460. 
iJaiia,  R.  II.,  Jr.,  3ii9,  40U. 
Dinsniore,  James,  iAi. 

Episode,  an,  395. 

I'-ast  Boiiton,  375, 

a.ells.  llev.  W.  ^V.,  372,  373. 

"  Eagle  Wing,"  the,  ll. 

Ewer,  Rev.  N.,  14;). 

Edwards  '"out  of  conceit,"  1.3. 

England  preci-ded  Scotland,  14. 

Epi.-icopalians  no  longer,  19. 

Ecclesiiustical  transition,  16. 

l.-xpo-sition  of  Scripture,  164. 

Ea-ton,  121,122,  124. 

Elliot,  Rev.  John,  blessed,  220. 

"  Elect's  sake"  less  precious,  289. 

Endurance  for  public  worship,  324,  325. 

"  Expressive  silence,"  326. 

Ely,  Dr.  Ezra  Styles'  true  declaration,  342. 

Effervescence  jiassed  off,  353. 

East  Rustun,  419;  U.  P.,  421,  464,  465. 

Factorv  village,  37S, 

Fail  River,  409-412. 

"  Felt,  want,  a,"  154. 

French  Church,  38,  132,  334. 

"  Faith"  of  the  Pilgrims,  11. 

Faitli  and  logic,  200. 

Fasting,  a  day  of.  236. 

Federal  street,  267. 

Free-will  Baptists  condemned,  288. 

Family  worship,  326. 

Ferrier,  Rev.  Thos.,  346. 

Government  determined,  11. 
qilmore,  Hev.,  151,  153,  215. 
Gray,  Me.,  final  meeting  at,  217. 
Grafton  Pres.,  192;  Eastward  to,  232. 
Groton,  208,  258. 
Growth,  eia  of,  140. 
Grace,  the  means  of,  enjoyed,  231. 
Gibson,  Rev.  Wui.,  344. 
Good  Willie,  Rev.  David,  346. 
Goodwillie,  Rev.  Th  mas,  346. 
Gray's,  Mi-s.  Wm..  guests,  348. 
George,  Rev.  B.  Y.,  374. 
Gordon,  Rev.  P  ,  387,  417. 
"Globe,"  the,  of  Toronto,  395. 
Gentleman,  a,  sorry  and  sworn,  398. 
Graham,  Rev.  W  ,  429,  472. 
"Genesis  of  the  United  States,"  478. 

Hall,  Rev.  G.  M.,  389,  423. 
Harvey,  Rev.  Jos.,  118. 
Henry,  llev.  Hugh,  131. 
Huguenots,  29-32;  creed,  appendix  B. 
Hampton  advised,  296,  296. 


Houston,  Rev.  J.,  171, 185, 133. 

Harris,  Rev.  Mr.,  at  Windham,  313. 

Hillhouse  and  expediency,  129,  83,  85. 

Hayes,  Rev.  A.  A*  348. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.,  and  the  sisters,  18. 

Hutchi.son,  Rev.  A.,  received,  154. 

Hancock,  John,  178. 

Hebron,  N   Y.,  261. 

Huntington,  sermon  on  imputation,  273. 

House,  Rev.  Wm.,  363. 

Haskell,  Rev.  T.  N.,  375,  422. 

Harvey,  Rev.  Dr.,  379,  380. 

Ilolbrook,  Mass.,  Congl.  church,  380. 

Hartford,  381,  3s2,  383,  424. 

Heron,  Rev.  J.  M.,  388,  425. 

Honest  confession,  an,  387. 

Hibernian,  the,  and  Scot,  392. 

Heion,  Rev.  Dr.  Andrew,  416. 

llolyoke,  418. 

Harkness,  Rev.  R.,  466. 

Hood,  Rev.  J..hn,  464. 

Hammond.  Rev.  R.  N.,  469. 

Houston,  Rev.  A.  Y.,  469. 

Indi'pendence,  declaration  of,  171. 
Irish  Pre>bytery  and  others,  277. 
JdiahofJ,  -.'m. 
Impediment,  an, 392. 
Imputation,  16. 
Indemnifications,  75. 
Inducements,  large,  199. 

Johnston,  Rev.  W.,  128, 130,  89. 
Jordan  back  once,  295. 
Johnston,  Rev.  N.  R.,  345. 
Johnston,  Rev.  Jiis.  G.,  375, 
Johnston,  Uev.  11.  H.,  375,  421,  422. 
Junkin.  Mr.  A.  C,  418. 
Jones,  Rev.  D.  B.,  419. 

Kinkaid,  Rev.  John,  130. 

Kno-\,  John,  returned  to  Scotland,  13. 

Kirk,  address  to  the,  124. 

King's,  Dr.,  Mount  Zion  of  the  earth,  392. 

Kyle,  Kev.  Joshua  R.,  465. 

Ken,  a  prophet's,  458. 

LeMercier,  36. 

Londonderry  Pres.,  132. 

Londonderry,  79,  275,  363. 

Lawrence,  423,  424. 

Long  Lane  and  J.  Murray,  156, 163, 158. 

Long  L;ine,  petition  fronv,  254,  263. 

Little.  John,  (34,  05,  69,  73,  75,  316,  403. 

Lowell,  415;  dance,  410-418. 

Little  ordained,  310,  313. 

Luthrop's,  I'.ev.  Dr.,  statement,  405. 

Litchfield,  314. 

Lowe,  Ji>hn,  189. 

Lech  ford,  21. 

"  Leave  t.>  withdraw  "  graciously  given,  406. 

Lawson,  Rev.  J.  R.,  429. 

McArthur,  Rev.  Jas.,  346. 
Murray,  Rev.  John,  141,  156, 158,  244-248. 
Merrill,  Rev.  N.,  received,  154. 
McGregor,  Rev.  Janies,  76,  77. 


INDEX. 


511 


McTipan,  John,  1.'6. 

McGregor,  Rt-v.  David,  85, 134. 

Mi  I  tun,  Rev.  Mr  ,  290,  291. 

Mason,  Uev.  J.  M.,  massive  thoughts  of,  302. 

Milligun,  liev.  James,  ;i44,  345. 

Muni.liead,  Rev.  J.,  153;  "shy  of  it,"  98. 

McClenuhan,  Rev.  Wm.,  88,  126. 

McCIeary,  Capt.  David,  179. 

Murr.y,  Rev.  J.,  175,  179,  180,  182. 

Mini.sters  suffer,  1H8. 

Milfurd,  Ct.,  90. 

Morrison,  John,  his  history,  130. 

Morrison,  Rev.  W.,  252,  328,  348. 

Mansfield,  Ct ,  327. 

Moore,  Rev.  Sol.,  328. 

McGregor,  Rev.  D.,  353. 

M)ur,  Rev.  A.  S.,  o75. 

M<Laren,  Rev.  Wm.,  376. 

Magill,  Rev.  D.,  37b. 

McLaren.  Rev.  W.,  386,  408. 

McLanghlm,  Rev.  J.,  387,408. 

Memoir  concealed,  397. 

Methodism,  worst  ever  written,  407. 

MacMillan.  Kev.  W.,  408,  417. 

McVean,  Mr.  I).  C,  412 

McGaucliy,  Rev.  Mr.,  413. 

JlcVVilliimis,  Rev.  A.,  423. 

McConnell.  Rev.  W.  T.,  424. 

IMcCord,  Rev.  M.  S.,  405. 

Moody's  Tabernacle,  458;  "  talk,"  460. 

]McCracken,  Kev.  C,  404. 

McCune,  4GG,  467. 

IMcCoj',  Rev.  A.  G.,  408. 

Mc.^veal.  Rev.R.  A.,  469. 

McFall,  Rev.  D.,  473. 

"M.iyflower,"  the,  476. 

Newburyport,  157,  292,  367,  369. 
Newburyport,  two  churches  after  1795,  293 ; 

debar,  351. 
N.  !•:.  A.  R.  Pres.  to  he  visited,  299-301. 
New  Marlvet  Pres.  at  July  4th,  1776, 158, 297. 
New  Boston,  E.  P.  Bradford,  313. 
Necessity,  a,  18. 

Occum,  Rev.  Sampson,  221. 
Old  version,  "gnarled  vigor,"  461. 
Oliver,  Kev.  A.,  312,  313. 
"Orthodox  "in  1787,  265. 
Ordination,  new,  enduring,  18. 
Otterson,  Rev.  James,  40s. 
Ostracised  Presbyterians,  6. 

Presbytery,  first  respectable,  131,  58, 128. 

Pres.  110  good  by  compromise,  129,  130. 

Pierce,  ]{ev.  Thos.,  131. 

Pelham,  Pres.  at.  150,  117,  314. 

Palmer,  60;  its  discrimination,  119,  315,  328. 

Parsons,  Rev.  Jonathan,  111,  157;  death,  159. 

Peterboro,  127,  128,  186,  295,  312,  354,  367. 

Pilgrims,  faith  of,  11, 476 ;  church  govt,  of,  12. 

Psalms,  versions  of,  92,  93,  104. 

Paris'ies,  19. 

Presbyterial  visitation  ordered,  229. 

Providence,  412.  465. 

Precentor,  the,  2;!5. 

Presbyterians  sold,  23. 


Prentice,  Rev.  Sol.,  122, 124. 
Prentice,  Mrs.  Sol.,  123. 
Pres.  at  Eastward  formed,  146. 
Puritans,  doctrinal,  15. 
Puritans  to  purify  the  Establishment,  15. 
Puritans  remove  to  Leyden  from  Amster- 
dam, 15. 
Puritans  remove  in  1620  to  America,  IB. 
Puritans  who  go  to  be  an  absolute  church,  16. 
Popery,  third  vital  i)0wer  of,  2S7. 
Presbytei  ians,  became,  for  safety,  292. 
Parkf-r,  Rev.  E.  L.,  329,  349,  350. 
Parker  and  Mellen  deacons.  335,  336. 
Pres.  of  Newburyport  formed,  341,  343,  344. 
Prosperity  of  some  congregations,  why,  347. 
Pinkerton's,  J.,  bequests,  448. 
Proudfir,  Rev.  John,  351,  352. 
Park,  R.v.  Prof.,  363. 
Pulpit,  the,  gained  but  little,  364,  365. 
Planters  call  Church  of  England  mother,  17. 
Painter,  Rev.  11.  M.,  377. 
Pres.  of  Connecticut,  381. 
Pies.,  A.  R.,  of  New  York. 386. 
Pulpits,  evangelical,  in  Boston,  390. 
Pioneer,the,  b92, 393 ;  church  prospered,  406. 
Presbyterians,  the  Reformed,  394. 
Prifest.  a,  402. 
Publications,  406,  407. 
Prestiyterianism  ebbing,  197. 
Polity,  civil,  set  up  by  Pilgrims,  477. 

Queen  and  bishops  severe,  14. 

Races,  dissimilarity  of,  198. 

Reed,  Andre\y,  87. 

Reid,  Geo.,  173. 

Keid,  Mrs.  Geo.,  175. 

Rutherford's  labors,  87,  88. 

Representation  forced  on  Puritans,  18. 

Reconciliation  aimed  at,  152. 

Revolution,  the,  170. 

Ref.  Pres.,  a  division  among,  345,  346. 

Ryegate  and  Barnet,  264,  321,  324. 

Ross,  Rev.  J.,  376. 

Records,  business,  into  New  Jerusalem,  398. 

Recoids,  business,- disinterred  in  Arlington 

street  church,  399. 
Repairs,  §4,700,  402. 
Robinson,  Kev.  Jas.,412. 
Reekie's  statement,  415. 
Robb,  John  P.,  ordained,  415,  465. 
Reformed  Presbyterians,  428. 
Recommendations,  462. 
"  Repository,  Evangelical,"  says,  470. 

Suicidiil,  a,  course  of  pastor,  463. 

Sermons,  reading,  366. 

Sabine,  Rev.  James,  336,  338,  339. 

Salem,  third  church,  166, 162;  Pres.,  207, 210. 

Scarboro,  131,  86. 

"  Seceders."  138. 

Seabrook,  151,  166;  letter  to,  237. 

Starks,  172. 

Salem,  N.  Y.,  2.50,  257. 

Scotch  bondmen,  22,  24. 

'•  Scots'  Charitable  Society,"  25. 

Scots'  request  iu  New  York  refused,  134. 


512 


INDEX. 


Scotch-Irish,  4143,  46,  47,  49,  56. 

Synod,  14-18. 

Synod,  its  "  decrees,"  18. 

Synod,  who  constituted  it,  18. 

Sectarian  rancor,  139. 

Synod,  plan  of,  163, 165, 167, 168, 193. 

Standards  subscribed,  118. 

Star  Chamber  dissolved  Pre-sbyteries,  15. 

Scotland,  Church  of,  a  general  plan,  135. 

Scotland,  Church  of.  Book  of  Discipline,  136. 

Stoue  and  Hooker,  81. 

Slavery,  184. 

Sabbatii,  American,  190. 

Sylvester,  212. 

Synod,  A.  K.,  257,  276,  297,  307,  309. 

Sessions,  the  safety  of  church,  293. 

Sects  in  Hhode  Island  and  Maine,  298. 

Second  Church,  Newburyport,  309. 

Society,  Fedenl  street,  317,  320. 

Swedenborgians.  335. 

Sloan,  Rev.  VVni.,  345. 

Shields,  Mr.  R  ,  345. 

Stamford,  Corning,  B.,  B.,  Halsey,  383. 

Scotch  praecliiiig  wanted,  389. 

Servants  at  times  allured,  391. 

Session,  records  of  a  decomposed,  397. 

Sworn  official,  a,  404. 

Shurtleff,  Mayor,  patches  up  a  stone,  409. 

Skinner,  Rev.  Dr.,  413. 

Saunderson,  Rev.  Jos.,  413. 

South  Boston,  425. 

Smith,  Rev.  I'.  Y.,  428,  465. 

Seed  sown,  results  correspond,  459. 

Selections,  subversive,  468. 

Service,  Rev.  J.,  469. 

Stewart,  Rev.  A.  S.,  470. 

Temples,  Parker's  and  Paine's,  463. 

Theocracy,  a,  established.  7. 

Trinity,  the  doctiiue  of,  dropped,  288. 

Thompson,  Rev.  Thos.,  78. 

Thompson,  Rev.  J.,  his  overture  in  1728, 135. 

Thompson,  Rev.  J.  L.,  466. 

Taggai  t,  S.,  applies,  165, 166,  311,  328. 

Tariffsville,  3Sl. 

Towns,  Presbyterian,  204. 

Thompsonville,  378,  380. 

Town  meetings  vote  out  the  Psalms,  272. 

Tturo,  Nova  Scotia,  109. 

Toombs,  313. 

Town  meet'gs  in  L.  opened  with  prayer,  348. 

Timlow,  Rev.  H.  R.,  374. 

Thompson,  Rev.  R.  G.,  381. 

Thompsonville,  A.  R.  church  in,  385-388. 


T.,  Mrs.,  391 ;  her  husband,  392. 
Truth  n.it  safe  on  earth,  399. 
Thomas,  Rev.  A.,  414. 
Taunton,  418. 
Thompson,  Rev.  S.  F.,  424, 
Taylor,  Elder  John,  425. 
Theory  of  Congregationalism,  8. 
Turnbull,  Rev.  J.  11.,  465. 

Universal  salvation,  229. 
Unit  irianism,  330,  .331. 
Ursuiine  nuus,  334,  335. 
Urquhart,  Rev.  John,  162, 165,  214. 

Vermont,  321 ;  Pres.  constituted,  346.  469. 
Voluntowu,  Ct.,  82, 126;  and  Mr.  Dorraace, 

127. 
Visitations,  pastoral,  164. 
Vow  of  members  of  Wr.  Assembly,  20. 
Vast  events,  20. 

Visitation  a  Presbyterial  one,  234. 
Vamped,  •'  the  imitations,"  295. 
Version,  Bay  State,  309,  316. 
Voted,  62  to  11,  to  sell  our  land,  402. 
Versions,  new,  467. 

Wallace,  Rev.  A.  G.,  428. 

Wallace,  Hev.  D.  A.,  408,  420. 

Watts'  "imitations"  since  1741, 154,  201. 

Wandsworth,  first  Pres.  in  England  at,  14. 

Walker,  Rev.  Zach.,  77. 

Westminster  Confession  adopted,  136. 

Wheeler,  Samuel,  149,  1.57. 

Whitaker,  ^^alem  admitted,  154, 162, 212, 286. 

Willis  quoted,  62. 

Williams  and  Skelton  afraid,  18. 

Wooiibridge  first  born  of  Harvaid,  19. 

Worcester,  52,  54,  61,  89. 

Windham,  130,  131,  353,  367. 

Williams,  S.,  called,  131 ;  withdraws,  196. 

Wa.xhaw,  S.  C,  179. 

Waldenses,  13. 

West-running  brook,  51,  364. 

Whitefield,  96,  97. 

Wheelock,  a  letter  to,  222. 

White  Creek,  N.  Y.,  223. 

Washington,  Pres.  at  East'd  address,  240. 

Wilson,  .^Irs.  Agnes,  264,  350. 

West  Derry.  "a  felt  want,"  294. 

Wilsons,  Kev.  S.  M.  and  R.  Z.,  345. 

Wilkinson  ville,  426. 

Williamson,  Rev.  James,  426. 

What  God  honors,  463,  464. 


While  we  regret  to  omit  part  of  Appendix  C,  and  all  of  D  and 
E,  we  find  they  are  too  long  for  insertion,  and  would  not  proba- 
bly be  of  deep  interest  to  the  common  reader. 


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